Tamers Unlimited
by rgm0005
Summary: Takato had always dreamt of having a Digimon. He just didn't expect this particular partner. It's funny how a single difference can change so much.
1. Chapter 1: Darkness Rising

Summery:

Tamers Unlimited

Sixteen year-old Takato looked at the cards in his hands and picked one, laying it down triumphantly. By and large, he considered himself a normal kid; average height, average build, average grades. He got into trouble a bit more often than most of his classmates, but that was mainly due to how flighty he was. His brown hair was a mess, and he had given up on doing anything with it a long time ago. The only really strange thing about him was his eye color; a red color that most would expect was natural. By and large, Takato was a cheerful, happy, carefree person, even if his progression into his teenage years had made him a bit awkward.

If Takato had a flaw, it would be that his imagination would often get the best of him, and that he can occasionally let his feelings, as well as his imagination, cloud his judgment. But for all that he tends to act goofy, carefree, and childish, he is quite capable of donning a more adult image when circumstances become serious.

"With this, DarkTyrannomon evolves into MetalTyrannomon."

"Oh, man, overkill!" Hirokazu, who had just lost, exclaimed. "I can't believe you actually pulled that off!"

Hirokazu was Takato's childhood friend; they'd been brought together by their fondness for Digimon. Most of the time, he won the card games they played, but this time was an exception. Hirokazu, like Takato, wasn't particularly exceptional student; he got by in class, certainly, but not in any way that particularly drew attention. He had blue eyes and brown hair, the former of which was shielded from the sun by a visor, and the latter of which was kept in a spiked hair style thanks to it.

While most think that Hirokazu lacks a sense of purpose, Takato knew that he really was a good friend and that he would help out to the best of his abilities as he knew that it was the right thing to do. On the other hand, he had a bad habit of getting mouthy, which often got him into trouble.

Takato just laughed happily at his victory, and after a moment, Hirokazu joined him.

"It's about time for us to go, Takato." Hirokazu said after calming down.

"I'll be along in just a minute; let me put these away." Takato said, as he shoveled his cards into a shoe box. He didn't notice that the collection tin was perched on the edge of the Dinosaur stature until it began to fall. Even then, he couldn't keep it from falling.

"Aw, man." Takato said with a grimace as he rushed to the edge. However, he stopped after noticing something. There was a card he hadn't seen before; a blue card. He quickly slide to the ground and picked it up.

"I don't remember having a card like this…" He said to himself. He picked up his card reader and ran the card through it. There was a flash of light bright enough to make him close his eyes, as well as an electric shock powerful enough to make him drop both the card and the reader.

He opened his eyes after a second.

"What was that?" He wondered, before noticing something. His card reader was smoking. "I-it broke?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, strange numbers and words flowed across the screen. However, he was soon distracted by the school bell, and panicked, realizing he was going to be late.

**XxXXxX**

After school, he was feeling a bit disappointed. He'd been late and had been forced to wait in the hall, had been laughed at by the entire class, was caught not paying attention, and what's more, his teacher had confiscated his notepad. Not to mention the fact that the weather had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

He quickly hurried to the dinosaur statue; he wanted to get his cards and go home.

When he got there, he was shocked to find that his collection tin was glowing with light and sparking with electricity. He quickly pulled himself into the dinosaur and, after a moment of hesitation, grabbed the box. He had been prepared to be shocked, but nothing of the sort had happened. Not sure what was going on, he frowned slightly. After a moment, he shook the box open, and found the source of the light. He barely had a chance to recognize it as his card reader before it transformed. The device left in its wake was mostly silver, but it had a ring of black around the screen, as well as two black buttons.

"What's this?" He whispered to himself. "My card reader turned into this?"

He silently pushed the buttons, but the only reply he got was 'No Data'.

**XxXXxX**

Takato rushed home to his parent's bakery, said a few distracted words of greeting to his parents, and went up to his room.

He hurriedly opened his collection tin and dumped out everything inside. He quickly fumbled through the cards, but failed to find what he was looking for.

The Blue card was gone.

He looked back at the strange device; the words 'No Data' were still flashing on its screen. The last thing he'd done with his card reader had been to slash that blue card. After which, it became…whatever this is. And then the blue card was gone.

Obvious conclusion, the blue card was the reason his card reader had changed shape.

But what had it changed shape into?

Takato glanced at all the cards around him. He had a thought, but quickly dismissed it and turned away. But that didn't keep him from looking back after a few seconds.

"Maybe…a Digivice?" He wondered to himself.

He shook himself.

"No." He told himself firmly. "That's crazy talk. And even if it was true, and this was a Digivice, what about my partner?"

He was torn from his thoughts when he heard his mother call. He put the device on his desk, and began to walk away. He was interrupted while doing so by some beeping and a light.

"Huh?" He turned back towards the device. It stopped glowing, and a hologram came into existence above it; a circular screen. There were words on it, and he stepped closer in order to read them.

"Partner Out of Range?" He spoke aloud.

He looked at it in silence for several seconds.

"Heh." He laughed a little, and couldn't keep the smile from his face.

He picked up the device and just looked at it.

"My…partner?" He rolled the thought over in his head.

**XxXXxX**

He awoke the next morning with his Digivice held in a death grip.

He looked out the window; the weather had cleared up sometime during the night.

He looked at his Digivice again. It still said 'Partner Out of Range'.

"Come on." He told it. "Get within range already."

**XxXXxX**

After School, Takato sat in the Dinosaur statue. He'd played several games with Hirokazu, but he had been so distracted he barely even remembered them.

He took out his Digivice with a sigh. He had a feeling he was going to be distracted a whole lot; at least until his partner got within range…

"Huh?" Takato said. The message was gone, and in its place was a sort of compass. The compasses arrow whirled around randomly for a second, before settling on a direction.

Takato had a thought.

"Will this lead me to my partner?"

Obviously, he received no response.

He licked his lips, which had suddenly gone dry and slid from the statue.

He lifted his Digivice, and followed the arrow.

If his partner was here, he had to find him. He felt it; something was definitely about to begin. He had to find out what.

He must have made quite a sight; a kid running through a city following a strange compass. But he couldn't care less about that. He followed his Digivice's directions through the city until he found himself at a rundown area, which had no obvious entrance. He looked around for an unconventional one, and found it.

He had to slide down some pipes, squeeze through some small passageways, and finally, crawl through a tiny, dirty, trash-filled, rat-infested tunnel, but he found himself at some sort of construction sight. He honestly didn't care where he was, though, because there was a bright light coming from the ground and his Digivice was pointing right at it.

"Well, here we are." He said before walking down a flight of stairs to the light. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, the light was gone, and in its place was a hole. Takato only got a glance at it, however, as the entire area was filled with some sort of fog that seemed to erupt from the hole. The force of the eruption was such that Takato had to cling to the railing.

"What was that?" He wondered, before forgetting about it completely when he noticed a shape in the fog. He was about to say something, but he was beaten to it.

"So,_ you're_ my Tamer, huh?" The Impmon asked, looking at him through the fading fog.


	2. Chapter 2: Black Dawn

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The Digimon descriptions belong to the owners of the Digital Monsters Almanac.

Tamers Unlimited

Chapter Two: Black Dawn

"It's Realized, sir. We couldn't stop it." One of the women told the blond haired man.

The clicking of a lighter was heard in response, before the man replied.

"Send her out then."

The woman nodded, already picking up her cell phone. She hesitated before calling though.

"Sir, it doesn't seem to be a Wild One. We think it may be another of them."

There was a contemplative silence.

"Ask her to leave the Digimon alive so long as it isn't a threat. If it turns out to be another partnered Digimon, tell her not to kill them. Tell her to see what they've got, instead."

A woman nodded and a call was made.

**XxXXxX**

"You're my Tamer?" Impmon asked, a ting of disbelief in his voice.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Takato asked, feeling a bit offended.

It stared hard at him for a second, looking him up and down, before rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

"Nothing."

Takato decided to drop it; he had more important things to worry about.

"You're…Impmon, right?" He had to admit, this wasn't what he had been expecting. Though, to be honest, he wasn't sure _what_ he'd been expecting.

"Obviously."

Takato blinked. He was actually pretty proud of himself for remembering that name off the top of his head.

"I'll take your word for it. And you're my partner, right?"

"You sure like stating the obvious, don't you?"

Takato looked at him in silence for a long moment.

"And you said I was your…what? Tamer?"

Impmon was looking at him like he thought he was a blathering moron, but he nodded.

"What does that mean?"

"Huh?" Impmon looked confused at the question.

"What does being a Tamer mean?"

"A Tamer is a human bonded to a Digimon. Do you really not know this?" Impmon asked.

Takato shook his head. Impmon sighed.

"Okay, here's how it works. I'm your Digimon and you're my Tamer. That makes us partners, I guess. As a Tamer, you're supposed to make me stronger. Thanks in advanced."

Takato was just getting more confused.

"Stronger? How do I make you stronger?"

"I have no idea." Impmon stated bluntly. "That's just what everyone says Tamers do."

"What?" Takato said, alarmed.

"Hey, I've never had a Tamer before."

"Then…how do you know I'm your Tamer."

He looked at Takato like he was an idiot again and pointed to the device in his hands.

Takato felt like hit himself. Oh, yeah, the Digivice.

Speaking of which…

"Hey, Impmon, do you know what this thing does?" Takato asked, pointing towards his Digivice.

Impmon took one look at it and replied bluntly; a manner Takato was beginning to think he replied to everything in.

"You know what?" Takato said after a moment of silence. "It doesn't matter. You're here now."

Impmon chuckled at that.

"Yeah, I am. Did I keep you waiting long?"

"Only a day." Takato said, before tilting his head towards the way he came. "Let's go."

**XxXXxX**

Shortly after, they stood together by the Dinosaur statue, with Impmon inside of it so that he'd be out of site.

Takato was showing his partner his Digimon cards, or at least the ones he'd brought with him in the collector tin. Impmon, for his part, was commenting on the familiar faces.

"Hey, I know this guy."

"Who?" Takato asked, shifting to look at the card. "Bakemon?"

"Yeah."

"What was he like?"

"Kind of a jerk. Tried to kill me just because I accidentally entered his territory. Didn't matter though; he was a complete and total weakling."

Takato thought about that, and tried to figure out how to approach the topic he wanted to discuss.

"You come from the Digital World, right?"

"Obviously."

"What's it like there?"

Impmon exhaled slowly.

"There are worse places to be; only, not really."

"It's that bad?"

"If you don't have the power to defend yourself, you're basically looked upon as a piece of meat. I like to think of myself as strong, but…I can't fight Perfects." It seemed to cost him something to admit that.

Takato looked at him for a moment.

"Well, that's what you're here for, right? To get stronger? That's where I come in, isn't it?"

Impmon chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess. Too bad neither of us knows how that works."

"We'll figure it out. I promise."

He meant it. He wanted to a good Tamer more then he wanted anything else.

But Impmon was right, a small part of him thought. He had no idea what he was doing.

Takato shook himself, and looked for a distraction.

"Hey, are you hungry?" Takato asked Impmon, who looked at him in confusion by way of a response. "Because I live in a bakery, so we can always get some bread if you get hungry."

Impmon tilted his head to the side, and Takato got the distinct impression that he knew what he was trying to do. But he also went along with it.

"Now that you mention it, yeah, I am a bit hungry."

"Then let's go!" Takato said with a smile. However, his smile faded a bit around the edges when he remembered something. "Oh, but we'll have to hide you from my parents."

Takato looked Impmon up and down and nodded to himself.

"It shouldn't be too hard; you're not that big. If they ever catch us, I can just pass you off as a new Digimon toy."

Impmon looked at me with an expression between shock and disbelief.

"Toy! I'm not toy, kid!"

Takato just laughed. He had a feeling things would be getting interesting from now on.

**XxXXxX**

"I'm home!" Takato said.

"Welcome home." His dad's voice replied from the kitchen. "You're home late today."

"We'll be having dinner soon." His mother chimed in.

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute." Takato told her, walking past carrying Impmon under one arm and doing his best to appear casual. He wasn't sure how well he did, but when he pause to listen if his parents were going to say anything about it, he didn't hear anything.

"So this is your room?" Impmon said a minute later.

"Yeah. What do you think?"

Impmon looked around and was silent for a few seconds before replying.

"I think you have a lot of Digimon stuff." He stated, blunt as always. He walked over to Takato's desk and jumped onto it.

Takato laughed again.

"Yeah, I'm a huge fan; I got everything my allowance could buy. Which was mainly cards, actually, but I'm fine with that; I play the game everyday with HirokazU. I think I have your card, as a matter of fact."

"My card?" Impmon asked, suddenly interested. "Wait, Hirokazu."

"Hirokazu is a friend of mine. Give me a second; I try to find your card."

A few minutes later, Impmon was looking at himself.

"God, am I that good looking in real life, too?" He asked.

Takato wasn't really paying attention; he was busy looking through his stuff for something.

"Ah-ha; found it!" He said triumphantly. He quickly put something over his head and turned back towards his partner.

Impmon looked back, somewhat perplexed.

"What are those?"

"My goggles." He told him.

"I…realize that. But why are you wearing them?"

"Because I'm your partner."

Impmon simply looked at him, uncomprehending and unbothered by it.

"You'd get it if you watched the show." Takato assured him.

Impmon looked like he was about to say something, but he suddenly stopped and looked towards the window.

Takato quickly noticed his partner's reaction.

"Is something wrong?"

Impmon didn't say anything, but his entire body grew tense as he looked out the window. Takato walked over behind him, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"There's nothing out there, Impmon." He said, beginning to feel a little bit worried.

**XxXXxX**

"Sir, we have another Wild One emerging!" The woman told the blond haired man.

"Who's nearby?" He asked.

The other woman typed something on a keyboard, her fingers moving with the deftness of someone who had done this a thousand times.

"_She_ is already on her way towards the source." She said after a few seconds of typing.

"Then there isn't a problem."

The women nodded at that; they were well aware of her skill.

"Has she found the Digimon you said could be a partner yet?" The blond man suddenly changed the topic.

"No, sir. She said that when she reached the realization point, there was no one there."

"Was there any damage to the area?"

"No, sir, she said it seemed fine."

"That would seem to support the partner theory. Normal Wild Ones don't generally leave areas unharmed." The man said, speaking as much to himself as to the women. "When does she think she'll be able to track it down?"

The notion that she wouldn't find her target never even crossed his mind.

"She said she would find them within two days and likely by tomorrow."

"Good."

A lighter clicked shut.

**XxXXxX**

Meanwhile, in another construction sight, a young girl was looking at the newly evolved Fugamon. Moments before, it had been a Child level Goblimon, but it had somehow managed to evolve. She wasn't worried, though; it didn't particularly matter what level it was.

"Kyuubimon." She said, and her partner moved behind her in response.

"Yes?"

For a moment, she looked like she wanted to say something; words of encouragement, perhaps. But she seemed to change her mind at the last minute.

"Get rid of him."

Kyuubimon nodded once and blurred into motion. She knew what her partner wanted to say, and she also knew why she didn't say it.

Less than a minute later, Fugamon cried out as blue flames washed over it. It exploded into data particles moments later; particles which Kyuubimon quickly absorbed.

**XxXXxX**

Impmon slowly relaxed, but he didn't turn away from the window.

"What was that about?" Takato asked.

"Another Digimon broke through." Impmon said with a frown.

"What?" Takato blinked. "Should we, I don't know, do something about it?"

"There's no point now. It's gone; probably dead."

Takato looked alarmed.

"Dead? How?"

Impmon's frown deepened.

"I don't know, but…I don't think we're alone. There's probably at least one other Digimon in this city." He sounded sure of himself.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think there are other Tamers?" Takato wondered. He hadn't even considered the notion in the excitement.

"How would I know?" But the thought made Impmon furrow his brow. "But whoever it is, they're strong; that Digimon was gone in less than a minute."

Impmon turned to his Tamer.

"I'm going to stick close to you until we know what's going on."

Takato blinked and scratched his head.

"That should be fine; we'll just have to keep you out of sight at school."

**XxXXxX**

"Damn it, Impmon, what happened to sticking by me?" Takato muttered. Sometime during the school day, Impmon's boredom had gotten the better of his resolve. As a result, he'd gone wandering sometime during gym class, and had scared several teachers, including the principal.

As a result, his Tamer had ended up running all over the school, trying to find him. He stopped briefly near the cafeteria; the lunch ladies were complaining about someone taking literally all of their bread and leaving everything else basically untouched.

Takato shook his and sighed. If Impmon really needed to eat the lunch food, he could have at least had the grace to eat the other stuff and spare the students from it.

"Impmon, why did you come to school if you just wanted to have fun? I could have taken you to the park before school, or something." Takato paused for a minute in order to catch his breath. "Where are you, Impmon?"

"You just said 'Impmon', right?" A voice asked. Takato looked towards it in alarm. "That's a Digimon, isn't it?"

It was a boy about his age. He had blue hair and grey eyes, and wore an orange vest over a black T-shirt. He was taller than Takato, and seemed better built. Takato wasn't really paying attention to that though; the boy had mentioned Digimon calmly, as though they were but another aspect of everyday life. He _knew_, Takato realized.

"H-how do you know about that?"

"This guy is a Tamer?" Another curious voice asked. Someone walked out of the doorway the blue haired boy stood next to. Rather, a Digimon walked out; a Terriermon, to be precise. Takato's eyes widened, and he glanced back at the boy, only now noticing the device that hung from his waist; a Digivice, green where his was black.

Takato gasped. That certainly answered his question about whether he was alone or not.

Terriermon chuckled.

"If you and your partner don't understand each other, then you have no right to call yourself a Digimon Tamer." He said.

Takato felt like he'd been slapped.

"Terriermon!" His Tamer snapped.

"Moumantai!"

The boy with the Terriermon sighed.

Takato opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find something to say. In the end, he just shook his head, turned, and ran. He still had to find Impmon and as much as he wanted to deny it, it's not like he could refute what Terriermon said; he barely knew Impmon. But that didn't matter; Impmon was his partner, and he didn't care what anyone else said about it.

But if he didn't know his own partner, he really _was_ a shitty Tamer, a part of him pointed out.

The boy just watched him go.

Takato stopped running. Terriermon was right, damn it. First day as a Tamer, and he was already screwing up. 

"Where are you Impmon?" He said, looking to the sky.

The answer came to him in a flash, and he felt like hitting himself. He pulled out his Digivice. Why was he wasting time looking around, when he had a compass that points straight towards his partner. He randomly pressed buttons until the compass came back up, and then he just followed it.

He found Impmon on the Roof of the school. He was sitting near the edge looking at the sky, but he glanced towards his Tamer when he stepped on the roof.

"Hey, kid."

Takato was trying to be angry, but he was having a hard time managing it due to how relieved he was to have found his partner.

In the end, he just sighed.

"Hey, yourself." He walked over and sat by his partner. "School will be over soon; will you be okay up here until then?"

"Tch. Of course." Impmon wasn't looking at him. Did he think he was mad.

Takato silently put his hand on his partners head.

"There's a lot of ruckus going on down there due to what you did…" He said, causing Impmon to glance at him, waiting.

He smiled gently.

"…So classes will probably be delayed a little while; I'll stay up here until then."

Impmon snorted and looked back at the sky.

**XxXXxX**

Several hours later, they found themselves doing the same thing on the playground. They were, unsurprisingly, by the Dinosaur statue. Impmon was staring at the sky while Takato was letting his mind wander.

"Hey, Impmon?"

"Hmm?"

"What should we do now?" Takato pondered.

Impmon took his eyes from the sky and looked too his partner.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, now that you're here, what should we do?"

Impmon looked confused.

"I mean, we decided to get stronger together, but what are we going to do with that strength?"

"Huh?"

"Are we going to conquer the world, or become superheroes, or what?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, kid." Impmon flat-out stated.

"What I mean is…you and I must have come together for a reason, right?"

Impmon shrugged.

"I guess I just want to know why."

_Why it was me,_ he thought; _why I was special, why it was me who was chosen and not someone else._

"Don't think to hard, kid; you'll hurt yourself." Impmon said as he stood "If there isn't a reason, then there is no point in wasting time thinking about it."

"But what if there is a reason?"

"And if there is reason, then–"

What Impmon would have said, Takato didn't know, because Impmon was interrupted by a yellow blur. Takato didn't see what hit his partner, but by the way Impmon went flying it did so with the force of a freight train.

"Get out of the way, rookie." A voice said. "This is a Digimon battle."

On the other side of the playground stood a girl his age, with red hair done up in a strange style and violet eyes. She was about his height and wore a T-shirt with a broken heart on it. She also had a belt with…a deck attached? Honestly, she was very pretty, and Takato likely would have been paying more attention to the details of what she looked like if this was any other situation. As things were, this was the first time they'd ever met and she was already kicking his ass.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

The girl ignored his comment utterly.

"Renamon wants to fight. Get out of the way."

"Renamon?" Takato repeated confusedly before slowly looking upwards. In the tree above the girl there was a yellow, fox-like Digimon with cold blue eyes. Ignoring her vulpine features, she looked basically humanoid. She wore purple gloves with ying-yang symbols on them.

Takato mentally took stock of her based off of her appearance, compared her to Impmon, and thought about her desire to fight his partner.

He heard someone spitting behind me.

"This is going to suck." Impmon spoke his thoughts.

The girl drew her Digivice, but I couldn't see what color it was, and lifted it. A holographic screen appeared and she spoke.

"A Rookie-level Imp-type Digimon; a Virus with a child-like appearance. He looks forward to deceiving his opponents in many ways, whether by using his almost adorable appearance to his collection of practical jokes. When an Impmon appears, electrical appliances around him temporarily corrupt, and some say that when these gadgets freeze up, it may be because Impmon has played one of his tricks on them. This Digimon prefers to confront stronger opponents with his bold and brash attitude. He attacks his opponents with "Summon", where he summons the elementals of fire and ice, and "Night of Fire", where he attacks the enemy with a dark flame." She casually leaned against the tree behind her. "He's all yours, Renamon."

The yellow fox jumped down from her perch while Takato fumbled through his pockets for his Digivice. He hadn't know the Digivice could do that. That one monologue had told him a lot about his own Partner.

He drew his Digivice and, sure enough, the screen appeared.

"This fox-like Beast Man Type Digimon is a Data Type. She tosses about opponents with her speed. She trains for all kinds of circumstances in order to make calm judgment. It is said that in comparison to other Child races, she has reached the point where she is highly intelligent."

"Shit, not just a pretty face, huh?" Impmon jibbed. "Fine, then. Come on then; Kick. My. Ass."

"You heard him Renamon. Kick his ass."

Takato only managed to see the first attack in a technical sense. He saw Renamon's left leg start to move, but then it was like he skipped a scene in a move. He only saw her foot leave the ground; he didn't see it kick Impmon across the face, nor did he see it cross any of the points between the ground and Impmon's face.

But Impmon still went flying, so he must have been hit.

Takato looked to the side, towards where his partner had landed. He was already struggling to get up. Takato quickly realized that Impmon was wide open, but he didn't even have time to spout off a warning before the yellow blur that was Renamon dove towards him with blinding speed.

But Impmon wasn't stupid, and didn't need anyone to state the obvious. He flicked his wrist and in an instant a flame flickered into life upon his fingertips. Not a moment after coming into life, they were sent flying over the few feet between Impmon and Renamon.

Of course, as the Digivice had told him, Renamon wasn't stupid either. She had obviously expected an attack, and as soon as her suspicions were confirmed, she reacted. Without even breaking stride, she took a larger step then normal and the flame went past her face without touching it. Then she attacked.

The first blow was a simple punch to the stomach, but it had enough force behind it to lift Impmon three feet off the ground, and would have lifted him even higher if not for the second blow.

As soon as the full force of the punch was delivered, Renamon took a single step back and started to turn, lifting her left leg in the process. While Impmon was being lifted by the force of the first blow, Renamon finished her turn with her leg high in the air. A leg that she immediately brought down on the back of Impmon's head, slamming him face first into the ground.

But Impmon had already realized how fast she was after she first took him by surprise, and he had never intended to hit her with his attack. At least, not with the first attack.

Behind her, the fireball curled around in mid-air and flew back towards Renamon's defenseless back. This time he was the one to use speed to his advantage. Just as Takato had been unable to warn Impmon due to the pace of the battle, now it was Renamon who received no warning.

At the last moment, it seemed like Renamon sensed something, but she could do no more than shift slightly, causing the fire ball to hit her arm instead of her chest. In a reflexive reaction to the impact and pain, Renamon leapt away, putting distance between her and Impmon, just in case he had prepared another attack. After landing, she hurriedly snuffed out the flames.

As soon as she was off of him, Impmon scrambled to his feet. Off to the side, Takato had to give his partner credit; he was tough, if nothing else.

"Impmon, keep your distance." Takato shouted the first idea he could think of. It was pretty obvious who had the advantage in close combat, but with those fire balls, maybe Impmon could win at a distance.

"I figured that out by myself, kid!" Impmon shouted back while scrabbling away, trying to increase the distance even further.

Renamon and her Tamer just watched them with cold, expressionless eyes, until Impmon stopped moving at what he judged to be a safe distance. It was within range of both of his attacks, but far enough that he should be able to notice an attack. Seeing this, Renamon's Tamer let loose a smirk.

"Keeping your distance is only a good plan if your opponent is weaker at ranged combat then you are." She turned towards Takato. "You're his Tamer, right? Shouldn't you know it's a bad idea to make assumptions based on limited information?"

She tsked, once, twice.

"Renamon?"

In response to her name, her partner jumped into the air and curled her body. A pale bluish-green light began to show around her crossed arms. Takato's eyes widened in tandem with Impmon.

"Impmon!"

"I know-"

"Attack!" He cut his partner off. Maybe he was stupid to make assumptions based off of limited information, but he was pretty sure he was right this time. Renamon was fast; she hadn't made a single attack yet that either Impmon or his Tamer had been able to keep up with. If he accepted that as a pattern, then this attack was likely to be fast as well, and he didn't like Impmon's odds at dodging it, much less blocking it.

But they say that the best defense was a good offense. If they couldn't block Renamon's and couldn't dodge them, then they had no choice but to take it. Therefore the only winning strategy would be to cause Renamon damage at a faster rate than they were taking it.

I saw understanding fill his eyes before he refocused on Renamon. He spread his hands and two rings of fire appeared one within the other.

Renamon uncurled her body and the energy around her shattered in to shards of glaring white light.

"Koyousetsu!" She declared, as though she were pronouncing a criminals death sentence. And in response to her voice, the shards fell like rain.

Impmon faced it fearlessly, and faced it with a cry of his own.

"Summon…" He started as he tore a large sphere of fire from the rings with both hands and lifted it over his head. As he did, the sphere swelled and grew until it was as large as Impmon's own body. He shifted his feet, and Takato's heart started pounding as he noticed Impmon wasn't throwing it. The shards were getting closer and closer, and they no more faltered in their approach then Impmon in his stance.

There were less than three feet away when Impmon made his move.

"Fire!" He finished, throwing the flame through the gathering shards. The small shards shattered like the glass they so resembled as Impmon's fire plowed through them. Renamon's eyes widened at the sight. On the ground, she would have dodged the attack with ease, but airborne as she was, she had no say in the matter.

The Summoned flame blazed through the air, and Renamon could do nothing cross her arms and take it. The resulting explosion forced Takato and the girl to turn away and cover their eyes.

When the explosion cleared, they looked back. Takato and the girl quickly took stock of the situation. They noticed that Renamon had been knocked into a tree, and her arms had been heavily burnt, but she stood and, he had to give her credit, showed no signs of pain. The girl relaxed.

Takato quickly tried to find his own partner, and he felt his body tense against his will when he couldn't find him. He didn't even have a chance to worry when he heard his partner's voice

"Summon…!" Takato drew his eyes skyward. Impmon and Renamon had changed places, and now it was Renamon on the ground and Impmon in the air. And Impmon was imitating Renamon.

In front of Impmon, the two rings had appeared again, though they were now several times large in diameter. But that wasn't the only difference.

This time, the rings were made out of icicles suspended in mid-air.

"Renamon!" Takato heard the girl shout behind him.

"Ice!" Impmon completed as he swept a hand down at Renamon. In response, the icicles poured from the sky, falling upon Renamon like frigid lightning. If it had been Summon Fire, she would have dodged it. But it wasn't. It didn't look as powerful as Summon Fire, but it hit a larger area.

Takato looked at Renamon as she disappeared beneath the following. He heard Impmon laughing in triumph, but be never got a chance to join in himself, however, because of what he heard next.

"Card Slash!"

Takato turned towards her just as she dragged a card through her Digivice.

"A Digimon card? What are you-"

"Alias, activate!"

What is she doing, he wanted to ask. He'd tried that earlier, and it hadn't done anything.

Had it?

Renamon had been on the ground; she couldn't have dodged. That was a direct hit from a Virus Type. Even if she wasn't down, she should be hurt badly.

So why was she in the air above Impmon. The card?

No wait, that's not the issue!

"Impmon, look out!"

He looked at his Tamer and saw fear in his face.

"Huh?"

"Touhakken!" Renamon shouted as her hands and feet were engulfed in pale blue flames.

Impmon's eyes widened in realization as he heard the voice behind him, but he didn't have time for any other reaction before Renamon hit him. The force of her punch was strong enough to send both of them flying, albeit in opposite direction. They were booth heading towards trees, but only Impmon hit it. Renamon contorted her body in midair, and managed to land on her feet in a crouch, on the vertical surface of the tree.

The moment she landed, however, she immediately went airborne again, this time heading towards Impmon. She reached him before he even the ground and slammed him back into the tree he'd hit with enough force to splinter the bark of the tree. It was up for grabs as to what hurt him more; her fist, the flames, or the tree.

She absently tossed him to the ground and looked towards her tamer. Impmon's body was barely staying in one piece; it looked like it could explode into data at any minute.

"I may have over done it."

Her Tamer shrugged as Renamon walked over to her. She was wondering if Impmon's Tamer was going to say anything. He did, but not what she expected.

"Card Slash!"

Alarmed, the Tamer looked at the boy. As he said, he was slashing a card. But where…?

She noticed the collector tin on the ground by his feet.

"Command Program, activate; 'Augmentation'!" He shouted.

The Tamer growled; she knew what that card did. It forcibly increased a Digimon's physical health by writing over their current data. It would keep your partner alive, but according to Renamon, it hurt a lot.

"Renamon, attack Impmon!" She ordered. Renamon seemed surprised by the order, but didn't question it. She attacked the prone Impmon, who had only just opened his eyes and seemed to be about to scream, without the slightest hesitation.

But a moment before she made contact, Takato slashed another card.

Her fist slammed into the ground. Impmon was nowhere to be seen.

But she still heard him.

"Night of Fire!"

She heard it, but she knew she wouldn't move fast enough to dodge.

"High speed plug-in B, activate!"

But what a Digimon was normally capable of meant little when Tamers were thrown into the mix.

To Impmon, it looked like he'd missed a scene in a movie; on second Renamon was kneeling on the ground, and the next second a flame covered fist was heading straight for his face. Renamon was moving with a speed he could hardly even believe!

"High speed plug-in H, activate!" He heard his Tamer call just before everything slowed down. Renamon was still moving extremely fast, but less so then before. Impmon managed to shift slightly to the right at the last second. It was a close call, though, and Impmon had to close his left eye to keep it from getting singed along with that side of his face.

He grit his teeth and attacked.

"Night of Fire!" He conjures a ball of flame in one hand and hurls it at Renamon. She dodges it easily, leaping back over five meters before the dark flame could reach her.

They stared at each other from across the field; eyes narrowed, bodies tensed, waiting for the single. It came as two voices crying out in unison.

"Offense plug-in A, activate!" The Tamer behind each of them roared as though it were a battle cry. And their Digimon did nothing to dispel the illusion. High speed still enabled, they dove across the field. They moved to fast for their Tamers to see them at all, and closed the distance so fast that they didn't even hear the voice of their opponents Tamer until after they made contact.

Renamon's blue burning fist hit the sphere of dark flames Impmon held in his hands in an explosion that blew both of them back to their starting points.

The two Digimon didn't take their eyes off of each other for even a moment. They were both on their knees before their Tamers, both breathing heavily. But neither of them was willing to concede the fight.

And neither were their Tamers.

Takato made the first move.

"Black Gear, active!" Impmon's Tamer screamed.

Impmon's heavy breathing stopped, and he straightened. His green eyes glowed red and a black aura seeped from his skin like smoke. He lifted his hands, looked at his right hand, and spoke.

"Night of Fire!" He said, snapping the fingers of his right hand, and a perfect sphere of flames formed in it. He looked at his left hand and spoke once more.

"Night of Blizzard!" Shards of ice swirled into a sphere when the fingers of his left hand were snapped. He looked at his opponent, waiting for her move so that he would not be taken by surprise by her Tamers actions.

That was his mistake. For though she acted second, she chose a much better move.

"Evolution plug-in E," Renamon's Tamer slashed the card of her choice. "Activate!"

Renamon was consumed utterly by blue flames; they swallowed her from sight and left the Tamer and his Digimon effectively blind to what was within.

Within the flames, Renamon's body was changing drastically. Her skin was peeled away, revealing the framework that took the place of blood and bone. Her body warped, switching from a biped to a quadruped form. Her already vulpine face twisted and elongated, becoming completely fox-like, from muzzle to ears. Her single tail lashed randomly as it was torn into three different tails, and then when each tail was torn in three again.

Only then did the flames recede, though even then they didn't do so completely; blue flames still flickered upon the tips of her tails and on the feet of all four of her legs.

Takato lifted his Digivice, somewhat reluctantly; he didn't _really_ want to know. He already knew the most important detail. A glance at the screen did nothing but confirm it.

"Kyuubimon, Adult Bewitching Beat Digimon." He read with a wince. "Data Type. She is proud of her mighty perseverance and skill. In ancient times, she was revered as a messenger of peace. Her attacks are called Ko En Ryuu and Oni Bi Dama."

Impmon glanced at her.

"I don't think we're going to get much peace out of her, kid." But even as he said that, he stepped forward.

"Impmon, are you sure-"

"Save it, kid." He cut him off.

Takato took a deep breath and nodded. If his partner was going to fight, so was he. He looked though his cards, but only saw one he thought would help.

"Defense plug-in C, Activate!"

"Still gonna fight, rookie?" Renamon's, no, Kyuubimon's Tamer said.

"Yeah. I guess I am." Takato said, not backing down from her gaze.

She chuckled.

"Good boy. Kyuubimon, finish this."

Kyuubimon braced herself for her next attack.

"Ready, Impmon?"

"I was born ready, kid." He said as he did the same as Kyuubimon.

Takato nodded, more to himself then to anyone else.

"Okay. Let's do this." He said

"Kyuubimon, end this." His opponent said.

At the same time Impmon dove forward, still holding his spheres of fire and ice, the flames of Kyuubimon's body flared up once again. She leapt forward, her body twisting and curling into a ball before the flames consumed her and formed an immense Dragon of blue flames.

"Ko En Ryuu." Kyuubimon's voice said from within the dragon.

Impmon growled as he threw the ice sphere at the Dragon barreling towards him. It evaporated on contact. He knew the sphere of flames would have no more effect, but he threw it anyway, just out of spite.

And then he faced down the dragon himself, with nothing but his bare hands. He shouted a battle cry just as the Dragon hit him, and that was the last thing Takato saw before the thunderous explosion took his hearing and the flames filled his sight.

The flames died down surprisingly quickly, and Takato immediately looked for his partner. The sight of him made his eyes widen before he rushed to his side.

His body was covered in burned, and laid splayed on the ground. But he was alive.

"Impmon…" He whispered.

Impmon opened his eyes and looked at his Tamer, before he started struggling in his grasp.

"Move, kid. I'm not done, yet." He managed to escape Takato's grasp, mainly because his Tamer didn't want to hurt him any worse then he already was, which, with those burns, disclosed holding on too hard.

Kyuubimon spoke.

"You are out matched and near death. Even so, you will not give up?" She asked.

Impmon spat on the ground.

"Of course not."

Takato sat there on his knees for a moment, holding back tears, before nodding tersely in resolution and getting to his feet.

"You heard him." His voice sounded a bit hoarse.

Kyuubimon tilted her head, and he thought she might have smiled, before crouching again; getting ready to pounce. Behind her, her Tamer was looking at her opponents a bit differently, with a bit more respect, perhaps.

"Kyuubimon," She spoke. "Do it."

Kyuubimon leapt forward, and Takato found himself thinking this was it before something, _someone_, cut in.

A voice cut across the battlefield.

"Stop!"


	3. Chapter 3: Midnight Twilight

Tamers Unlimited

Chapter Three: Midnight Twilight

"Stop!" The voice echoed.

And indeed they stopped. Kyuubimon even somehow managed to avoid hitting Impmon despite being in midair. Takato looked at the source.

"It's you…?"

It was the boy with the Terriermon. Terriermon himself was already running down the hill.

As for Renamon's Tamer, well, she looked more annoyed than anything else.

"What do you want, Jenrya?" She shouted.

"You were going to kill them Ruki!" He shouted back.

She frowned at him, which made him do a double take.

"And you're not supposed to!" He added, sounding exasperated.

"I know that!" Ruki nearly snarled. "If you look closely, you'll notice he isn't dead!"

"Only because we got here in time!"

"Hey, it's not my fault he didn't want to back down!"

"But it _is _your fault that _you_ didn't!"

Ruki sighed in disgust and irritation.

"Renamon, let's go." She said as she turned and walked away.

Kyuubimon glanced at her Tamer once before leaping towards her. She reverted to Renamon in mid-leap. She silently followed Ruki.

It was only after they left sight that Takato released a breath he hadn't know he'd been holding. He quickly rushed to Impmon's side; just in time, as it turned out, to catch his partner before he fell.

"Use this." Jenrya's voice said. Takato glanced up at him and noticed he was holding a card in his hands.

A 'Seed of Health' card.

Takato quickly took it and swiped it through his Digivice. He held his breath as he watched Impmon intently; he was quickly getting better. When the healing stopped, he wasn't in particularly _good_ condition, but even so, he didn't look like he was close to death, either.

Takato breathed a sigh of relief before looking at Jenrya again.

"Thanks. You're…" Takato's brow furrowed in thought as he tried to remember if he'd heard the name Jenrya before. He went to the same school, so he must have at least heard of him. "…Lee-kun, right? Lee Jenrya-kun from Class One?"

"That's me. And you're Matsuda Takato-kun from Class Two, aren't you?"

"That's me." Takato repeated.

"Though," Lee continued. "My name's actually Lee Jianliang."

Takato lifted an eyebrow.

"Chinese?" He wondered.

"From my father's side, yeah."

"So," Takato said, remember there were more important things to worry about then pleasantries. "You're Terriermon's Tamer, right?"

He was a hundred percent sure he was, but he needed a place to start the conversation.

"Yes, I am. And you're Impmon's Tamer, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh." Takato replied. "And that girl was…?"

"Makino Ruki, Renamon's Tamer."

"Makino?" Takato asked. The name sounded vaguely familiar. "I think I know that name."

"Yeah, her mom's kind of famous."

Takato thought about pursuing that line of questioning before he realized that he honestly didn't care about Ruki's Mom.

"You said something about Ruki nearly killing Impmon when she wasn't supposed to, right?"

Lee sighed, before he turned to leave and beckoned for Takato to follow.

"Let's take this somewhere a little more private. This is an important topic, and has a lot to do with why I'm here."

They ended up moving to a somewhat more secluded area of the park. Takato's partner was still unconscious; something that came as no surprise to Takato, considering the beating he'd been given. Takato quietly hoped this wouldn't take too long; he wanted to get Impmon somewhere that he could rest in peace.

"You've probably realized that since Digimon exist, there is probably a Digital World." Lee stated.

"Uh-huh."

"You've probably also realized that Digimon can cross between their world and ours, at least some of the time. This is proven by the presence of our partners."

"Yeah."

"And has Impmon told you what their world is like?"

"A little bit; he made it sound pretty bad."

"What you probably haven't thought about is the inherent consequences of these three things. Basically, their world sucks and they can escape it by coming here."

Takato nodded to show that he was following.

"Now this would be, at the very least, theoretically okay if they were all peaceful creatures. Unfortunately, the Digital World is not a place that favors either peace or compassion. The weak die and the strong feed off the weak. This is the one and only constant of the Digital World. Most of the Digimon that end up coming here aren't the types that are very nice to humans; most of the time they just come here looking for easier prey. In other words, for us humans."

Takato thought about the implications of that.

"That doesn't sound good." He said aloud.

"It's not. And it's made even worse by the extreme power of the Digimon; even at Child and Adult levels, the only types of weapons that work well are the types of weapons that generally aren't good to employ in the middle of Tokyo. As a Digimon evolves, the list of effective modern weapons steadily approaches zero."

Takato thought about his Digimon cards; especially the Perfect and Ultimate level Digimon. He thought about what could happen if one of them entered the Real World. He didn't like the thought, mainly because it quickly devolved into apocalyptic scenarios.

But at the same time…

Lee continued.

"But that's not to say the situation is hopeless. A number of Digimon have, for whatever reason, bonded with human beings; with Tamers. And while modern weapons can only work in theory, since we can't really bomb downtown every time a Child shows up, the effectiveness of Digimon on other Digimon has proven to work quite well in practice."

"…Proven? It's been done before? By who?" Takato asked after a moment of silent surprise.

"By Hypnos." Lee said.

If anything, that just made Takato even more confused.

"Who's Hypnos?"

"We are." A new voice cut in.

Takato managed to keep from leaping out of his own skin, but it was a near thing. It was only just then that he realized that he was really jumpy.

It probably had something to do with the number of people that seem to pop out of nowhere.

Takato looked behind him at the voice. It was a blond haired man in a black suit. He also wore a pair of black shades. His expression could have been carved out of stone. In his hand, he held a lighter, but Takato couldn't see any cigarettes.

Behind him were several other men in suits, but Takato could tell just by looking at them that the blonde was the leader. He wasn't sure how he knew; maybe the way the stood, or where they were positioned, or maybe just some part of body language that he just subconsciously recognized as difference. But however he knew, he did know; the blonde with the shades was in charge, the rest of them were here for show more than anything else.

"And who are you?" Takato asked a bit roughly. Partially because he was getting annoyed at being surprised, and partially because his heart had leapt into his throat and was currently pounding.

Lee cut in.

"This is Yamaki Mitsuo. He's in charge at Hypnos."

Takato filled that away; it revealed several things. Hypnos wasn't a person; it was an organization of some sort. It had some relation the Digimon and the Tamers, probably an important one since the boss himself came down to say hello to the newest Tamer. And finally, whatever it was, whatever it did, it was related to Lee, and, based off the comments Lee had exchanged with Ruki before she'd left, probably with her, as well. Based off the comments, it seemed like 'Hypnos employed the Tamers for some reason' was a possible and probably _likely_ option.

Keeping in mind that he _was_ a Tamer, and this was the leader of a group that probably _employed_ Tamers, the obvious conclusion would seem to be…

"Are you offering me a job?" Takato asked.

To the side, Jenrya looked surprised, but Yamaki didn't seem to care.

"You catch on quick." He said.

"I've had, like, half an hour to think about this." Takato said dismissively.

"Regardless, yes, I am offering you a job."

"I'm only sixteen; I'm not legally allowed to work on dangerous or harmful jobs." Takato repeated what he'd heard in class in a dull tone. He didn't really care; he just wanted to know if this job was going to be something legal or illegal before he went any further. He wasn't sure how the answer would affect his opinion until after he learnt what the job was, but he figured this was the type of thing he should know about from the very beginning.

"That won't be a problem." Yamaki dismissed the question.

Takato frowned.

"So it's illegal?"

"No, we just have really good connections." Yamaki said with a definite smirk.

Takato blinked a few times at that. Several things came to mind at that statement, including rich people and government conspiracies.

He thought about asking but decided against; he still had bigger questions to ask.

"And what is the job you're offering, Yamaki-san?"

Yamaki didn't seem to be put off by the sudden change in questioning. He seemed like a guy who could roll with the punches.

"Simply put, I want you to police an invasion from another reality." He said, totally serious.

Takato took it seriously, as well.

"You want me to deal with the Digimon that break through."

"Yes."

"What exactly is considered 'dealing with them.'" Takato asked; though, based off how Ruki acted, he had a pretty good idea.

"Kill them." Yamaki said bluntly, not beating around the bush. "Or at least, kill the Wild Ones."

Takato blinked at the term.

"Wild Ones."

This time, Lee, who Takato had nearly forgotten about, cut in.

"A Wild One is a Digimon that breaks through to this world and then goes on a Rampage. Which, sadly, is nearly all of them."

Yamaki looked vaguely annoyed that he'd been cut off, but nodded nonetheless.

"Indeed. And when they go on a rampage, people get hurt. We want you to help make sure that doesn't happen."

Takato glanced down at his wounded partner.

"How strong are the things that get through? If they're all as strong as Renamon was, then I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help."

Yamaki chuckled, looking amused.

"I believe you'll find that not to be a problem."

"Besides which," Lee cut in again. "A Tamers Digimon is very different from a Wild One."

Yamaki nodded at that.

"The bond between a Tamer and his Digimon has proven to be a massive advantage over Wild Ones. The most obvious example of this is in the usage of Digimon Cards in order to adapt to and change the course of a battle."

"And to unleash a can of whoop-ass; that deserves to be mentioned, too." Terriermon giggled.

Takato thought about it, before looking down at Impmon again.

"Can I have some time to think about it? It's really not just my choice." He gestured at his partner. "Let me at least wait until he wakes up so that I can talk it over with him."

Yamaki looked at him from behind those shades for a long moment before nodding.

"Of course. On one condition."

Takato had expected that.

"I won't tell anyone about you or the Digimon. I hadn't intended to, even before all of this."

"Good." Yamaki turned and walked away. "Lee, come on. I need to talk to you about something."

Lee and the other men followed Yamaki, and in a few minutes Takato was alone with his thoughts.

**XxXXxX**

"How did he do?" Yamaki asked Jenrya as soon as he was out of Takato's ear shot.

"What?"

"How did he do in the fight against Ruki and Renamon?" He clarified.

"Oh." Jenrya said in realization. "He did…surprisingly well, actually. Especially when you consider that he's had his partner for _maybe_ a day."

"How so?" Yamaki asked. 'He did surprisingly well' was good and all, but told him absolutely nothing about the fight or Tamer in question.

"Well," Jenrya looked for the words. "He adapted to the combat situation much faster than most people would. He stood by his partner even when things seemed to be hopeless. He figured out how to use the cards after seeing Ruki use them despite obviously having no prior experience. He managed to use the few cards he had on hand effectively, despite the fact that it wasn't a combat deck, nor was it heavily built around aiding a Child level Digimon in a fight, much less this particular Child level; it might not have even been a Virus type deck. He was probably working with a mostly useless deck."

Jenrya took a breath before continuing.

"But even with those disadvantages, he managed to turn the mainly one-sided battle into an actual fight. He even managed to impress Ruki enough that she had Renamon go Adult on him. And even in the face of a higher level Digimon he didn't back down."

Yamaki nodded slowly, filing all of that away.

"So do you think he has what it takes?" He asked after a moment.

Lee exhaled slowly, considering the question.

"That's one of those things that's hard to judge, but I'd say yes. I'm nearly sure he has what it takes to be a Combat Tamer."

**XxXXxX**

Takato was startled from his sleep by a loud groan. He was in his bed; he'd taken Impmon back to his house after Lee and Yamaki had left.

He sat up quickly and looked for his source. He realized he was getting paranoid; one day as a Tamer and several people had come out of nowhere. But he relaxed when he noticed the source of the noise, only to tense again when he realized what he was seeing.

Impmon was groaning, which was why he relaxed. However, he was groaning because he was trying to get up in his heavily wounded condition.

Takato scrabbled out of the bed so fast that he literally fell out of it. He got up without even pausing and rushed to his friend.

"Easy there, Impmon." He said, trying to gently push his partner back down. "You're still hurt."

He stopped trying to get up, though he still groaned.

"What happened?" He asked.

Takato quickly explained everything; Lee's arrival, Ruki's departure, and, most importantly, Yamaki's proposal.

"What do you think?" Takato asked.

"About the offer?" Impmon asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah." Takato said with a nod. "I'm not sure. I mean, if we're to believe everything they say, they appear to be legit. But…"

Impmon picked up on his partner's doubts.

"But that requires us to believe everything they say." Impmon finished.

Takato nodded at the voicing of his thoughts.

Impmon thought about it.

"Honestly, I don't trust them. Killing Digimon by using other Digimon?" He shook his head. "Sounds a bit funny to me."

Takato didn't say anything, but he agreed.

"And this is apparently a powerful organization…that no one's ever heard of?"

"And they seem to use Tamers as soldiers. Speaking of which; Ruki is a part of Hypnos. Not sure what that says about them." The Takato sighed, as he reached the source of his dilemma. "Having said that, if they're being honest, accepting could save a lot of lives."

"Not to mention get us into a lot of fights." Impmon said, making it sound like a good thing.

"And I have to admit, I'm curious now; I want to know what these guys are up to."

"And the easiest way to find out would be from the _inside_." Impmon realized.

"But if we go in, and found out something really bad was going on, what would we do?"

"Get out, obviously." Impmon said, as though it was a stupid question.

"Well, yeah, but I don't think they'd appreciate that. In all those movies, the evil organization tries to kill the guys who know too much. And if they try to do that, then…"

Impmon winced.

"They might send Ruki and Renamon to do the job."

"But, if we accept that they _could_ be evil, we should probably consider that they might not like us refusing, either." Takato continued.

Impmon exhaled.

"Suddenly, the 'become parts of the organization' option is looking better and better."

Takato was silent, lost in his thoughts.

"As we are now, we can't really refuse; too much risk, not to mention to possibility of missing something that could be important. On the other hand, if we find that something, what would we do with it?"

Suddenly, Takato realized something.

"Not as we are _now_…" He focused on Impmon. "You said you came here to get stronger, right?"

Impmon quickly caught on.

"Kyuubimon's a Data Type. If you get me to Adult level, I bet I can take her."

"But, if she has Ruki there to back her up with cards, this will end the same way as before." Takato countered.

Impmon's smile faded a bit around the edges. He didn't want to admit it, but it was true. But his smile only faded a little, because he realized something else, too.

"Unless you're there to back me up, as well."

Takato smiled.

"We lost this fight for two reasons. First of all, Ruki had a better deck for what she was doing; I bet it was built specifically for Renamon. And second of all, she could evolve Renamon, making the difference in power to great for us to overcome. But if we can get strong enough to evolve, as well, then all we have to worry about is Ruki herself."

Takato looked at Impmon and his injuries and winced.

"Though granted, that _is_ a pretty big thing to worry about." After a moment he looked away and smiled. "But I think it's one we can work around right now."

Impmon looked confused at his Tamers state before he looked at what had caught Takato's eye. He smiled as well; a smile that only became bigger in response to Takato's words.

"Hey, Impmon. You said you wanted to be stronger, right? Do me a favor."

Takato looked over the hundreds of Digimon cards he had amassed over the years.

"Help me build a deck."

**XxXXxX**

The next day, Takato found himself holding his breath. He was walking through the streets of the city, which generally wasn't something to get worked up over. Today, however, things were a little bit different.

First of all, he had Impmon with him. He was carrying him in one arm, trying to pass him off as a stuffed animal. One of the purposes of this trip was to find out if it was possible to do so.

So far, there hadn't been any trouble; a few glances and laughs at a sixteen year old boy carrying a toy around with him, but nothing more. He was hoping it stayed that way, but he also felt fairly sure that it would so long as Impmon didn't do anything.

But it was the other reason for this trip that was making the Tamer so nervous. Yesterday, while they were putting together their new deck, Impmon had told him that he was able to sense the presence of other Digimon. When Takato learnt that, he suddenly had an idea; before he committed to joining Hypnos, which he intended to do later today, he wanted to check one last thing.

How could he fair on the job with this new deck?

And so Impmon and Takato found themselves strolling through the streets after school, looking for any signs of Digital activity.

Suddenly, Takato felt his partner tense, before Impmon tapped his side several times in quick succession. He'd sensed something.

Takato was about to start searching for an out-of-the-way place to converse with Impmon when he heard a beeping sound. He quickly reach into his pocket and drew out his Digivice; its screen flashed red a few times, before changing into compass mode. It seemed to be tracking the Digimon Impmon had sensed.

Takato blinked. He hadn't known it could do that.

He wondered about what else he might not know, but only for a brief moment. Then he shook himself; this is what he had gone looking for, wasn't it? So why was he standing around?

He quickly followed the devices directs, which took him to the western exit of a parking garage. As soon as he was in front of it, Impmon squirmed from his arms and leapt in, leaving Takato behind with his surprisingly superior speed. Takato quickly followed, wondering why something with such small legs could move so fast.

"Wait, Impmon!" Takato called, but his partner paid no heed. He'd apparently noticed something that had grasped his full attention.

When Takato up after his partner stopped moving, he realized exactly what had done so, and understood the reaction.

In front to the duo stood Renamon, and after a moment Ruki walked out from behind a pillar.

She smiled.

"Hey, rookie. Ready for round two?"

Takato didn't reply; the moment he'd seen Renamon he'd reached for his deck.

Since this wasn't the card game and didn't have any of its rules, Takato had done the obvious thing and put the cards that he had figured he'd want the most on the top of his deck. As such, the cards he drew came as no surprise to him and he only glanced at the briefly before slashing them. He'd swept four cards before Ruki had even finished talking. These four cards were holdovers from his first battle where they had proven themselves to be extremely useful in a fight.

"High Speed Plug-in B, Offense Plug-in A, Defense Plug-in C, Black Gear," Takato swept all four cards in quick succession. "Activate!"

Impmon didn't say anything to Ruki or Renamon either. He just attacked. He did so even before he felt or heard his Tamers actions; he trusted that Takato would go through with the plan they'd come up with.

And he was right.

This time, their roles were reversed.

This time _he_ hit _Renamon_ like a speeding train.

Ruki's eyes widened in shock, though too her credit, she immediately began reaching for her deck as well.

But given the speed at which Impmon now moved; the force with which he now struck…

To Renamon, help was still a long way away.

The first plan Takato and Impmon had come up with to deal with partnered Digimon that were capable of reaching Adult level; don't let them reach Adult level in the first place. End the fight before they can even start.

Impmon's first blow had hit hard enough to lift Renamon off of her feet and throw her into the concrete wall four meters behind her. Not only that; it had done so with enough force to break the concrete of the wall itself.

Impmon didn't let up there, though. The ass kicking he'd gotten last time when he had given Renamon the time she'd needed to Evolve firmly in mind, Impmon followed Renamon to the wall and hit her _again_. A chocking sound tore itself from Renamon's throat and the wall behind her broke even more.

Impmon refused to let up, because he knew that would only end badly. He highly doubted that Renamon would be too forgiving of those blows, so the only real option was to keep hammered on her until she was down and it didn't matter.

However, if he kept hitting her while she was pinned to the wall like that, it was going to collapse. Which, according to Takato, was bad.

So Impmon grabbed his opponent by the throat and literally threw her to the ground. Following after her again, he landed on top of her and hit her, again and again. His blows had no style to them, he was just punching; this was brawling at its most primitive. He also wasn't using any Special Attacks, because he was afraid that given the time needed, Renamon would recover. As it was, Renamon could do little but shield herself with her arms; a defense that proved to be of limited effectiveness.

Until Ruki slashed the card she'd drawn.

"Evolution plug-in E, Activate!" Ruki cried with a bit of desperation tinting her voice.

Impmon was forced to jump away as Renamon was engulfed in a ball of blue flames again. He silently cursed himself; she'd managed to Evolve again, and in a few moments she would no doubt be on her feet and extremely pissed off.

Well, at least he'd gotten in quite a bit of damage.

Time for the second plan the Digimon and his partner had come up with. Behind him, Takato drew another card from his deck.

Kyuubimon emerged from the sphere of flames with a ferocious snarl; a sound Takato wouldn't have expected from her. He glanced at her eyes before quickly looking away; last time she had wanted to toy with us, to test us, at least on some level. This time, Takato was pretty sure she just wanted to kick our asses.

That was to be expected. When Takato and Impmon had come up with their first plan, they quickly noticed the flaws in it. Namely, the fact that if their opponent weathered the assault long enough to Evolve, then it was pretty likely that they were going to be extremely upset. Which, considering they would be Adult level Digimon at that point in time, was likely to hurt Impmon's chances of, well, survival.

Of course, as soon as this flaw was noticed, they quickly worked on ways to deal with it.

The first step of their backup strategy was pretty obvious; get out of the way before you die. Preferably by reaching some place they can't, for whatever reason, and which also gives an advantage. This step had been easily solved.

"White Wings, activate!"

Glowing white wings emerged from Impmon's back and he quickly moved vertically into the air. The space in the parking garage was limited, so it wasn't as effective as it would have been in a more open area, but even so, the addition of another dimension to move freely in would give Impmon an advantage, hopefully enough to be some time.

For you see, the second part of the plan required several variables. With the right cards, a Child could defeat an Adult, but it had to be the _right_ cards. And the right cards for one opponent were not necessarily the right cards for another.

As such, in order to fulfill the second part of the plan, which was to give Impmon as many unfair advantages as possible, Takato had to include a number of cards to adapt to changing situations, and thus couldn't arrange things so that he could just pull the needed card off the top of his deck. Luckily, the second plan built off of the first in order to sidestep this problem. The four cards used in the duos first strategy, when used together with White Wings, should, at least in theory, buy enough time for Takato to search his deck.

Fortunately, one of the first cards he looked at was useful in this situation.

As Kyuubimon attacked the airborne Impmon, Takato slashed another card. Kyuubimon apparently was in no mood to show mercy; she'd already used Ko En Ryuu, and the Dragon of Blue Flames barreled towards Impmon again; a painful reminder of how the fight ended last time.

But that was last time.

"Data Torrent, Activate!" Takato shouted.

Data Torrent was a fairly simple card. In the game, it reduced the Damage of Data Types by Three Hundred. As such, it came as no surprise to Takato when Impmon said nothing as the Dragon hit him. The thunderous explosion forced Takato to cover his eyes again.

When he opened them, the room was full of smoke. It was thick enough that Takato couldn't see anything through it for a moment. But only for a moment.

Suddenly, as if being carried on the breath of something big, the smoke was blown away. Takato quickly noticed where it was blowing away from. Impmon was standing in the center of a large scorch mark. His skin seemed to be steaming, but he himself was completely unharmed.

Takato looked him over twice to make sure, before turning back to his cards. Impmon trusted him to handle the cards, and he would trust Impmon to handle the battle.

Takato wasn't paying attention to the expressions on his opponents faces, as busy looking at his cards as he was. But Impmon saw and he had to laugh at the expressions of shock that he saw there. His laughter only increased in volume when he heard his partner slash another card.

"Data Killer, Activate!"

Impmon smirked at his opponents.

"Hey, Takato, are we gonna get in trouble for picking on little girls?" He asked mockingly.

"What did you just say?" Ruki demanded, obviously getting pissed off. Neither of them noticed, however.

Data Killer was a card that was basically the opposite of Data Torrent. Instead of reducing damage _from_ Data Type Digimon, it increased the damaged _to_ them.

Impmon disappeared from Takato's vision, due to the effects of the White Wings and High Speed cards acting in concerto. It wasn't that he was a blur; Takato literally could not see Impmon move at all. That's not to say he didn't see anything, though; the effects of Impmon's actions were such that one would have to be blind not to notice them.

Kyuubimon had been slammed into the wall opposite the one Renamon had hit, and had left a large crater where she hit the wall. Takato felt like he'd skipped a scene again; he had no memory of Kyuubimon getting hit, of her crossing the distance between where she had once stood and the wall, or of her actually hitting the wall itself. All he knew was that Impmon had disappeared and Kyuubimon was in a crater.

Ruki's expression twisted with rage as she drew a card.

"Okay; _that's it_! No more games!"

Takato expressed his agreement as he slashed another card.

"Adult Level Killer, Activate!" He cried, slashing the card.

At the same time Ruki slashed hers.

Takato winced as the wall basically exploded. Not because of the wall itself, but because of what he saw.

Impmon stood by the wall.

But Kyuubimon was nowhere to be seen.

What's worse, Takato knew why. He didn't hear Ruki say anything over the sounds of destruction, but he recognized the effects.

"She used Alias!" The boy shouted to his partner, who immediately disappeared. Takato tried to turn around as quickly as he could, but something he heard stopped him.

"High Speed Pulg-in H, Activate!" Ruki shouted. Takato looked at her, and noticed her face had gone serious and blank; she was focused completely on her cards.

Takato knew what that meant. Ruki had officially gotten over her shock, and was quickly going to even the playing field. That meant there was really only one thing to do.

"Impmon, finish this!" He said as he finished his turn.

"Virus Killer, Activate!" Ruki's voice made him wince. That was the Virus version of Data Killer. Since Impmon was currently reducing Kyuubimon's damage by three hundred, and Kyuubimon was doing an extra three hundred damage, Impmon was going to take all of Kyuubimon's attacks at their normal strength, minus the Defense Plug-in.

It would only get worse, Takato knew. Ruki had versions of all those plug-in cards, and he knew that there was a Child Level Killer; he even had one in his deck. He was willing to bet she had one, too.

He had to end this quickly.

He looked at the battle, and couldn't see anything, they were both moving so fast. But he saw the damage their attacks were having on the surroundings; claw marks, craters, and scorch marks littered the area. Before his very eyes, a crater appeared, seemingly caused by nothing at all. A moment later, a car was on fire, and another, and then another.

But he didn't see either of the Digimon, and he didn't hear any cries of pain. That meant they were equal in power, at the moment.

This meant that, since Ruki was just going to keep buffing Kyuubimon up, they actually weren't very equal at all. That was one of the major drawbacks of their second strategy; it went through good cards so damn quickly. He only had a few left.

"High Speed Attack, Activate!" He said, slashing one of them. Supposedly, it would make Impmon faster, but since he was already invisible to the naked human eye, he couldn't really see the difference. He could only hope that Impmon and, more importantly, Kyuubimon noticed a difference.

Behind him, Ruki slashed another card.

"Child Level Killer, Activate!"

Takato winced, but only a little. He expected it, after all.

Besides, it didn't increase Kyuubimon's speed, so hopefully it wouldn't change things. Still, Impmon better finish this before she finds a speed boosting card.

The sound of something breaking made Takato wince again. He looked and couldn't hold back a sigh of relief. It was Kyuubimon; she'd been slammed into a car.

Just a little more…

Naturally, Ruki promptly crushed that hope.

"First Aid Kit, Activate!"

Kyuubimon's wounds began to close before Takato's very eyes, and apparently Impmon saw it too, because it was followed by a thunderous impact, that made the car explode. That was the good news.

The bad news was that Takato had somehow heard what Ruki said over the explosion.

"Brave Shield, Activate!"

Takato grit his teeth, suddenly frustrated. Another card he was familiar with and had in his deck. Quite possibly one of the most powerful defensive cards in the game, reducing damage by five hundred.

In other words, Impmon's attack probably did nothing.

There was a sudden explosion of blue flames; Kyuubimon was using Ko En Ryuu again. But why? There was no way that attack was going to hit Impmon.

Which was why it wasn't intended to, he realized. She was using it as a means to travel safely; if Impmon wanted to attack, he'd need to do so _though_ the raging inferno of Kyuubimon's heavily boosted attack, which would have been a _really stupid idea_.

She traveled towards her Tamer with deliberate slowness, giving Ruki time to slash another card.

"Defense Plug-in C, Activate!"

Takato looked at the pair and the room was silent for a brief moment. Then Takato nodded to himself and drew out one more card. His best card.

Impmon flickered into existence at his side, looking at his Tamer with wide eyes. He recognized the card.

"Let's end this, Ruki."

"Gladly." She said, pulling out a card of her own.

"Impmon."

"Kyuubimon."

The partnered Digimon braced themselves, ready for the end. The Tamers opened their mouths to give the order, and-

"STOP!" Jenrya screamed.

Everyone stopped.

Nobody had noticed his arrival; a side effect of fighting for what could quite possibly be your life. As such, they were understandably surprised by his sudden outburst.

"What do you want _now_, Lee?" Ruki asked, more than a little annoyed.

"Didn't we already go over this, Ruki? Hypnos doesn't-"

"This has nothing to do with Hypnos, Lee. So get lost." Ruki interrupted. Lee blinked in surprise at her interruption before changing tactics.

"Takato-"

"Like she said; this has nothing to do with you." Takato didn't even glance at his fellow Tamer; he had eyes only for Ruki. He watched her as closely as he possibly could, waiting for her to either make a move or give him an opening.

"Then what is this about?" He demanded.

Takato and Ruki shrugged as one.

"Victory, defeat, pride, revenge, and maybe a few other things?" Takato suggested. He didn't really know _why_ he was fighting, but he knew he had no intention of backing down. He also knew that Impmon felt the same way. Or maybe that was _why_ he felt the way he did. 

Ruki just nodded at what Takato said. She didn't really know why victory meant so much to her, she just knew it did.

"Impmon, do it." Takato ordered, back to business.

"Kyuubimon." Ruki pick up from where she left off.

Both Digimon lunged towards each other, vanishing from sight yet again. Their Tamers where about to slash their cards, when Jenrya's voice interrupted them yet again.

"Terriermon!"

Both Tamers immediately tried to find the Digimon in question, expecting him to try to interfere. The both looked at Lee, but his Digimon wasn't by his side.

It was Rika who noticed his location first.

Takato's attention was drawn by a gasp, and what he saw made his eyes widen. Terriermon stood between the two attacking Digimon looking surprised. Apparently he'd wandered from his Tamer, and wasn't expecting to be attacked.

Both Impmon and Kyuubimon were moving too fast to even notice Terriermon had gotten in the way. Given the sheer amount of power being thrown around, the simultaneous impact of Kyuubimon and Impmon was probably going to delete him.

Takato didn't have time to even say anything.

But then, he didn't need too.

"Terriermon evolve to…"

A bright green light momentarily blinded everyone.

But when they could see again, they weren't looking at Terriermon.

"Galgomon!"


	4. Chapter 4: Dusk in Shades of Grey

Tamers Unlimited

Chapter Four: Dusk in Shades of Grey

Takato stared in shock at this sudden development. Before him now stood a larger version of Terriermon, with guns instead of hands. He also had pants now, as well as a belt of ammo.

He was screwed, he realized. Well and truly.

_Two_ Adults? He had been forced to use a ton of cards to keep up with just _one_.

He opened his mouth to say something, though he honestly wasn't sure what he was going to say. He should probably give Impmon some new orders; adapting to the situation and all that.

But he didn't have a plan.

He'd built his deck around the possibility of fighting one Tamers partner. He'd planned to either catch them off guard or hit them before they could react.

But he hadn't planned for a _second_ Tamer to get involved. Which, in hindsight, was really stupid. He was aware of the existence of at least two Tamers; if he ever needed to fight against the other Tamers, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't gang up on him. On the contrary; outnumbering your opponent and kicking his ass was pretty much the oldest trick in the book. He should have considered it, _planned_ for it.

But he hadn't.

Which meant he had to think off a plan _now_; he knew that. He just couldn't think of a way around _two_ Adults and their Tamers.

And suddenly, all of Takato's thought processes stopped. He'd been so lost in his own shock and despair that he hadn't noticed when the situation changed again. Jenrya's Adult level partner had focused on Takato for a moment before he did another thing Takato hadn't expected.

Galgomon pointed his guns at him.

Maybe it was stupid, but there was another thing he hadn't considered. The fact that he might die.

Maybe it was because this was only his second day. Maybe it was because it was Impmon who did all the fighting. But he'd never thought he'd be this close to dying.

So he did the worst thing he could have done. He froze. And Galgomon fired.

And when he did, several things happened. Jenrya's eyes widened, though whether out of fear for Takato's life or because his partner was about to kill someone, not even he knew. Ruki watched silently, while Kyuubimon lunged at her fellow adult.

And Impmon, who had started moving the moment he'd seen Terriermon evolve, knocked Takato out of the way.

"What do you think you're doing kid!" Impmon screamed at his partner.

Takato was breathing hard, as if standing still had exhausted him. He didn't reply to his partner.

But it was no longer shock that was keeping him silent. It was realization. He'd realized something in the moments after his life had been saved.

Galgomon was firing randomly; he wasn't aiming specifically for any of the people in the area. He was firing at anything and everything that caught his attention. Takato had just happened to be the first thing to do so.

In other words, he was acting like a stupid animal.

Takato's breathing suddenly evened out. He'd let fear get the better of him; he should have thought things through. He did so now that he was calmer.

The situation had changed, that was true. But it had not necessarily changed for the _worse_. And that was because of one simple fact.

Galgomon wasn't on Ruki's side. Galgomon wasn't even on Jenrya's side.

But maybe, just maybe, he could be on Takato's side. If not knowingly.

Or willingly.

"Impmon, get off of me. I have a plan."

His partner immediately became serious and got up; Takato had proven himself more than able to, at the very least, keep his partner alive. And it just so happened, with an Adult that specifically wanted to kill him on one side and another Adult that wanted to kill everything in the area in general, that remaining alive had somehow magically jumped to the top of Impmon's priority list.

Takato remained close to the ground, hiding behind cars and looked around at the area to see what he had to work with. He took a deep breath and nodded to himself. He wasn't running out of cards, but he only had a few that were going to help him in this situation; he was going to need to conserve them if he didn't want to run out entirely. That meant he was going to have to use his brain and the surroundings instead.

"I don't think Galgomon has noticed you yet; we need to keep it that way. The closest cars to Galgomon are that blue one, those two red ones, and that black one." Takato nodded at the cars in question. "Move behind those three cars to get behind the black one." He pointed at three cars. "Then attack from an angle as close to Kyuubimon as possible without moving from behind the car. Got it?"

Impmon nodded.

"How many of the cards are still working?"

"Most of them have already worn off, and the rest will wear off shortly."

Takato blew air out from between his teeth, before nodding and reaching for his deck.

"There's no helping it. Vaccine Killer, Activate!" He slashed the variant of Data Killer. "I'm not sure I'll be able to use any more cards without seriously hurting Galgomon, and we don't know what he'll do if that happens; he might just start firing bullets everywhere. But at the same time, you need to at least hurt him enough to piss him off; we want him to shot in your direction. Specifically…"

"At Kyuubimon." Impmon finished before his voice faltered a bit. "Hey, kid…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you really think this is the time to go after Kyuubimon? That seems a bit more relentless then I'd have expected of you."

Takato paused; his partner was right. When had he become this ruthless?

He shook himself. Now wasn't the time.

"We could run if you want." He offered Impmon, but a large part of him, a part he didn't understand, felt offended at the very notion.

Impmon snorted.

"Don't kid yourself; I was just wondering when my partner became so much like me."

Impmon rushed into action, leaving Takato with his thoughts. He wasn't worried about Impmon; he had no doubts that he would pull this off.

And that was what worried him. They'd been partners for only two days; when had he developed this much faith, this much trust?

_I was just wondering when my partner became so much like me._

That's what Impmon had said. And it made Takato wonder, too.

Was he becoming more like Impmon? If so, why? Because they were partners?

Did it matter, either way?

No, he decided. They were in a life or death situation. Anything that was unrelated to victory or survival was unimportant.

Impmon was in position. He was in a place that Galgomon couldn't see, but Takato could. Impmon looked at his Tamer, silently asking if this was good enough. Takato nodded silently, the fact that he'd understood his partner's intentions in a glance not lost to him.

He prepared his attack.

"Night of fire." Impmon whispered, black flames gathering in his hands. He stood there for a minute, just aiming, waiting for a good opportunity.

It was Takato, not Impmon, who noticed it.

Galgomon turned, his random firing turning him so that his back was to Impmon. But Impmon, being behind a car and unable to see, couldn't possibly notice.

But he did.

Takato didn't even have time to wonder how he should let Impmon know without revealing his own position, when Impmon leapt from behind the car, hurled his attack, and dove once more for cover.

Galgomon released a startled yelp as the unexpected attack took him in the back of his head. Thanks to the Vaccine Killer, it hurt a great deal and more then accomplished its purpose; pissing off Galgomon.

He spun quickly, and narrowed his eyes when he spotted his enemy.

Kyuubimon, for her part, looked surprised by this turn of events.

The barrels of Galgomon's gun-like hands began to glow green, before a multitude of bullets were fired in the direction of the nine-tailed fox. The majority of the bullets would probably end of flying wide; Galgomon wasn't really aiming very well. However, the sheer _number_ of bullets would insure that Kyuubimon was injured.

But Kyuubimon was no fool. She wasn't going to stand in the path of a hail of bullets and hope for the best. She fully intended to dodge everything she possibly could.

And, fortunately for Kyuubimon, that happened to be _everything_.

All any of the Tamers were able to see was a yellow blur with vague tints of blue. It occurred to Takato and Ruki that her speed enhancing cards had also worn off. She was doing this with nothing but her own speed.

Takato was forced to realize that he'd been correct. If the fight between Kyuubimon and Impmon had continued, had Ruki continued to enhance her partner, Impmon would inevitably have lost.

In fact, Takato realized in shock and horror, he probably would have lost very quickly; as soon as the boosting effects of his cards had worn off. Which could have quite possibly been only a few more seconds into the fight.

He thought about the card he'd been about to slash. Would it have been enough without the other cards there to back it up? He didn't know; he _couldn't_ know. Not without knowing what cards Ruki had held in her hands.

Or, at least, what card she had been preparing to slash before they'd been interrupted.

Takato turned towards the girl, and watched her silently for a moment. Who was she, really? He didn't know.

And, Takato felt sure, he needed to find out.

Later, he told himself, returning to the battle. Kyuubimon had taken the offensive. Or, at least, that's what most people would have thought. But Takato had _seen_ Kyuubimon go on the offensive before, so he knew what was happening.

Kyuubimon was holding back.

Takato frowned. He hadn't expected that. He glanced at Ruki, to confirm his suspicions.

She wasn't slashing any cards. She didn't want to take Galgomon down. Then what did she want?

She wanted him to control himself, he realized.

Takato glanced at Jenrya, and could tell by looking at his face that he was aware of what was happening as well.

Takato's frown deepened.

This wouldn't do. This wouldn't do at all.

If Kyuubimon somehow managed to get Galgomon under control, then he and Impmon were screwed. Chances are good that Jenrya would take Ruki's side if it came down to a fight; he'd only know Takato even existed for a little more than a day, whereas he seemed to, at the very least, associate with Ruki to some extent.

And if it came down to a fight between the Child level Impmon and his nearly out of cards Tamer vs. the Adult level Kyuubimon and Galgomon and their Tamers, both of whom still have the majority of their cards, then it was pretty much guaranteed to end badly for the newbie's.

Hell, as far as he knew, Jenrya hadn't used _any_ cards, not even to evolve his partner.

The only way Impmon had even the slightest hope of victory is if this battle remained a free-for-all. Which meant that he couldn't let Galgomon calm down and, more importantly, he couldn't let _Kyuubimon_ calm him down.

He quickly thought his way through several courses of action, and discarded pretty much all of the ones that involved dealing with Kyuubimon directly; that type of plan would pretty much be guaranteed to end badly. That pretty much left three options; Galgomon and the other Tamers.

Ruki was discarded almost immediately; hostility directed towards her wasn't going to bother Galgomon, it would just piss Kyuubimon off.

Jenrya would be a workable option, so long as Galgomon retained enough sense to remember his partner; something he wasn't sure he wanted to bet on. Not to mention the fact that Takato didn't really want to hurt Jenrya; he didn't have anything against the guy, he barely knew him!

Which only left Galgomon. In other words, he was back where he started. Galgomon had proven to care about himself, at least, so the probability of success with him as the target was near certain. On the other hand, he was still crazy, and was now ready for action. In addition, everyone was watching him closely now, after he'd attacked Kyuubimon. If he just had Impmon go for an all-out attack, chances that someone would notice and understand the obvious, that he and Impmon were working against them, was pretty high.

That was also likely to end badly.

He had to do this subtly. But he didn't have any cards with him to allow that.

And then inspiration struck.

If he didn't want them to know he was on a different side, the easiest way would be to make them think he was on _their_ side.

It wouldn't even be that hard, he realized. Vaccine Killer increased the amount of damage Impmon inflicted on Galgomon, true. But as far as he could tell, the card hadn't had any observable traits; it didn't seem like Impmon's attack had changed visually in any way that mattered.

Had any of the other Tamers seen him slash that card? He didn't think so. In other words, nobody but he and Impmon knew that Impmon's attacks hurt Vaccine type Digimon so much.

Meaning, that is he could move things so that he appeared to be on _their_ side, and then have Impmon attack in conjunction with Kyuubimon, it was unlikely that anyone would blame Impmon if Galgomon was hurt a bit more badly than expected. After all, Kyuubimon was the Adult level, not to mention the Data Type.

But how to make them think that they were on the same side?

Takato barely refrained from smacking himself as he realized the obvious answer.

He glanced once more at Galgomon, making sure he wasn't looking over in his direction. Then, he quickly began to scurry towards Jenrya, staying as low and out of sight as was possible while also moving quickly.

"Lee-san, what's going on?" Takato asked, trying his best to seem confused. "Why did Galgomon evolve? And why is he acting like this?"

Though, to be honest, he didn't know the answers to either of those questions.

It was just that he honestly didn't care.

Lee looked at him grimly.

"He evolved because he was in danger; what were you and Ruki thinking! Fighting like that, in a place like this! You're lucky no one was hurt, not to mention that no one's seen you!"

Takato glanced away, as though chastised, though honestly he was more annoyed than anything else. He didn't want Lee to know that, though, hence why he looked away.

"But what about Galgomon?" He asked, trying to change the subject away from himself.

Sure enough, Jenrya's focus shifted from his fellow Tamer. He obviously cared more about his partner then about either of the others.

"He's lost control again."

Again? Takato filed _that _interesting tidbit away. He also decided to look into whether this was a common occurrence, and, if so, how he could use it against others.

He pondered quickly over whether or not to start fishing for information right now, but decided against it. He was trying to come off as an innocent, but foolish, new guy. It was probably better if he didn't make Lee start thinking he was smart. At least, not until he was through with him.

Besides, would an innocent person start looking for advantages in future fights while an insane Adult is firing his guns in the background? Probably not. Not _acting_ suspicious is the best way not to _look_ suspicious.

So, instead, he asked a different question, sticking to the matter at hand; advancing his goals while hindering his opponents.

"How can I help?"

Jenrya looks at me speculatively. He seemed vaguely suspicious so I did my best to look sincere. Apparently, I pulled it off; a surprise since I'm usually a horrible liar.

"You seem pretty egger to help for someone who was making Ruki look tame just a minute ago."

Okay, maybe not.

"I never meant for Terriermon to get dragged into this, Jenrya." Takato said, using his first name to add emphasis.

That much was true; he'd had no intention of fighting two Digimon, much less getting involved in a Digital Free-for-all.

"It's my fault that this happened;" He continued, carefully veiling his thoughts.

That, however, was a lie. If it was anyone's fault, it was Terriermon's, for getting in the middle of something that had nothing to do with him.

"I want to do everything I can to help." He finished, hoping it would sound convincing.

It was sort of true, though; he really did want to do all he could to help.

Help Impmon that is.

But what you don't know can indeed hurt you, which was something this plan relied upon; them not knowing and thus getting hurt. So he would play along for as long as he needed to.

So he smiled like he meant it. He was a nice guy; he'd made a mistake, but wanted to make up for it.

Sure, why not?

And Jenrya nodded.

"We're trying to wear out Galgomon." He said.

"Will that work?" He asked; mainly to see if this really had happened before.

"Yes." Lee didn't elaborate.

Takato filed that information away the moment he heard it. Wear them out and they'll calm down. This wasn't necessarily a onetime thing.

Takato took a moment to decide how to best ask what he wanted to. This was the most important part, and also the most risky. If Jenrya was going to notice anything, he would notice it now, and that was something Takato could let happen.

"Lee-san, there's something I want your permission for."

"What?" He asked distractedly, having already focused on the battle again.

"I'm going to need Impmon to use his attacks if I want to help."

Lee snapped back to attention, refocused on Takato. Takato, for his part, saw the objection forming before Jenrya's mouth had even opened.

And he was ready to cut it off before it left it.

"Impmon's a Child level, not to mention a Virus type. He'll be at a severe disadvantage compared to Galgomon, an Adult level Vaccine. If he wants to fight effectively, he's going to have to give it all he's got."

All of that was true, and Takato paused to let that sink in before adding.

"Not to mention that I'm out of cards; I used pretty much everything I had in order to fight on par with Kyuubimon."

That also had a lot of truth to it.

"And with all those disadvantages, it's unlikely that Impmon could even _hurt_ Galgomon."

That, however, was a Blatant Lie.

Jenrya looked at him for a long moment, and it was all he could do not to cheer. He swung towards the battle just in time to see Impmon's first success.

The first attack wasn't one of Impmon's special attacks, it was just an anti-Vaccine punch, and it was synchronized with an attack from Kyuubimon. Kyuubimon had taken a swipe at Galgomon's left side in an attempt to turn Impmon away from her Tamer, who he'd ended up facing. It succeeded mainly because of Impmon's interference.

Kyuubimon and her Tamer both did a double take when they realized _that_.

It seemed Kyuubimon hadn't noticed Impmon had involved himself, until she'd seen him attack. Takato supposed she had been distracted by Galgomon's machinegun fire. That was understandable, he supposed.

She turned to snarl at Impmon, but didn't even get a chance to make a single noise, as Impmon landed in front of her before bouncing away.

Galgomon, for his part, seemed enraged, even though he had been calming but moments before. And as he turned and aimed for Impmon, the one whose attack had hurt him the most, he ended up with his guns aimed at Kyuubimon again.

Déjà vu had never been so life threatening.

The bigger problem, Takato realized, was Ruki. She was practically on the other side of the room; there was no way she'd heard any of his and Jenrya's conversation. I.e. she didn't know what they'd talked about, which meant she no doubt still believed him to be her enemy.

Which, he had to admit, was true. But it was also something he didn't want her to believe.

He and Ruki had gotten off to a bad start, trying to pummel each other's Digimon and all. And, if anything, her second impression of him probably didn't make her like him any better; he was probably close to the top of her 'Most Hated' List.

Not to mention the fact that she _knew_ he wasn't a confused little boy who'd stumbled into a violent world and wasn't sure what to do, which was the impression he'd given Lee. Hell, he'd had Impmon attack _first_ in this fight, and spent most of it beating up Renamon and Kyuubimon.

All of which left him with the impression that deceiving her into believing him an ally, if not a friend, would be much harder than it had been with Lee.

Takato frowned. Maybe Lee could do it? Ruki almost surely liked Jenrya better than him.

A glance a Lee told him that he was thinking the same thing.

And then, inspiration struck.

"Lee-san, this isn't looking good. Something just pissed off Galgomon." Said the man responsible. "I think things have gone from bad to worse, and I'm almost out of cards…"

Takato purposely trailed off, just as he intentionally widened his eyes.

"Lee-san!" He spoke with false urgency. "Do you have your deck with you?"

"What?" Lee asked, startled by the sudden question, but he quickly recovered. "Yeah, I have them."

"Do you have a Supreme Training Manuel card?"

Takato figured he must have one, and probably a Dark Training Manuel, too, which turned a Digimon's Attribute to Data and Virus, respectively. Digimon Attributes were much like rock-paper-scissors; Virus beats Data, Data beats Vaccine, and Vaccine beats Virus. Having an Attribute that is superior to your opponents will give you a small, but noticeable advantage in a fight. Generally, it's not as powerful a boost as most types of Option cards, but on the hand, it also lasts for a long, long time.

Takato himself had a Supreme Training Manuel card, and a Light Training Manuel, too, but he'd rather use Lee's, partially because he found it deliciously ironic to give Jenrya a part in his partners downfall, but mainly because making it seem as though he didn't have one would help support his Newbie act.

And sure enough, Jenrya leveled Takato with a look that made it obvious that he thought that was a dumb question.

"Of course I do." His expression shifted suddenly, probably remembering that I was the new guy, and should know this stuff. "Sorry. What I mean is that the Training Manuel cards are a fundamental part of a Tamers deck. After this is over, you should put two of them in your deck; one for each type that isn't natural to your partner. In your case, I guess that would mean the finding a Supreme Training Manuel and a Light Training Manuel, since Impmon is a virus."

A bit late for that lesson; he'd already done that. Takato decided to play along none the less.

"So you would have a Supreme and Dark Training Manuel, right?" Takato said, all the while thinking 'hurry up.'

"Yes, exactly." Lee nodded, apparently satisfied with his understanding.

"Can I use it? It'd give Impmon an edge against Galgomon."

Lee frowned at me for a long moment, before nodding slightly.

"Here, take this." Galgomon's Tamer said, pulling out and handing over his deck. "I can't use it while Galgomon's like that. I'll be right back; let me just talk to Ruki."

Takato was surprised; this was not what he'd planned. On the other hand, the results were so good, he could really complain. He briefly wondered if Lee would notice if he, ahem, borrowed a few cards, but decided that Jenrya had probably memorized his deck to keep that from happening; at least, that's what Takato had done.

Besides, if he did notice, he'd know Takato was the one who did it.

So it seemed he wouldn't be stealing anything today.

He was still going to cheat like a motherfucker using that deck, though.

He watched Jenrya until he was close enough to Ruki and, more importantly, far enough away to not notice what her was doing. As soon as he was, Takato got down to business.

First things first, he decided, before quickly slashing the Supreme Training Manuel. He glanced up at the battle to confirm its effects.

What he saw surprised him, and he immediately berated himself for taking his eyes off the battle; as far as stupid mistakes go, that was a pretty damn big one.

While he'd been distracted by Jenrya, the battle had changed course dramatically, though thankfully in a good way. Kyuubimon had apparently accepted Impmon as an ally, and they were now working very well together, keeping Galgomon completely on the defensive. Kyuubimon was handling the attack, generally with her claws and teeth. Impmon, on the other hand, was keeping Galgomon distracted and off balance with his fists and blasts of black fire. He still scored blows whenever he could, which succeeded in keeping Galgomon angry.

However, Takato quickly noticed the downside of this new found team. Or, at least, he considered it a downside.

They were working perfectly.

Kyuubimon and Impmon were beating him back, and he never got a chance to fight back in any meaningful way. Sure, he fired off a few shots here and there, but so what? A few shots wouldn't take down either Kyuubimon or Impmon, even if they did hit. Which they didn't.

Due to the current course of battle, Takato's card didn't have any visible effect. Impmon was hitting harder now, sure, but how hard Impmon hit was no longer the problem. Galgomon was plenty angry; he just couldn't do anything about it.

He had to change the course of battle, this time in a way he hadn't planned for. He needed to make Impmon _worse_, not better. And in a way that didn't draw too much attention.

He could turn Impmon into a Virus again, but that wouldn't do anything either; Impmon had been doing just fine as a Virus.

He could use some other card to worsen Impmon's performance, but Jenrya had, for obvious reasons, avoided cards that would make his partner worse in a fight, leaving him with few options.

He could have Impmon make an intentional mistake, or-

Takato shook his head. He couldn't do anything as use more cards or have Impmon screw up. He may be pretending to be a newbie, but even a newbie could see that the fight was going great. It wouldn't make sense to interfere in a fight that was basically over. Even if Impmon could pick up on his intentions again, it was risky; someone could notice Impmon's mistake and ask why he made it. Who knows? They might be able to recognize whatever it is that told Impmon what to do.

No, if things were to run smoothly, someone else needed to make a mistake; in other words, Jenrya, Ruki, or Kyuubimon.

Jenrya had little effect on the fight, so he was out, leaving two options. But how would the two of them make a mistake, especially a mistake big enough to break the rhythm of this fight.

And suddenly, Takato had an idea. A really nasty idea, to the point that he was shocked that he'd even thought of it.

Galgomon's bullets would have little effect on a Digimon, true.

But if they hit a human…

Slowly, Takato found his eyes being dragged towards the other two Tamers in the room.

And, despite how much he didn't want them to, ideas, dark and wicked ideas began to form in his mind.

He tried to shake them away, but…

He couldn't. For one simple reason.

He was pretty sure it would work.

It would have been easy to dismiss as disgusting and monstrous if, perhaps, he was unaware of the probability of its success, but he wasn't. And he couldn't.

If he could direct Galgomon's fire towards Ruki, the Kyuubimon would react and protect her; that wasn't a probability, he was completely and totally certain. He was also pretty sure he knew _how_ she would react.

She would protect her Tamer, and then counterattack without holding anything back; friendship and camaraderie were all well and good, but as far as Kyuubimon was concerned, if it was either Galgomon or Ruki, then really? It was just Galgomon.

Kyuubimon would use lethal force; she might back off if he miraculously survives, but she won't stop until he's no longer a threat; in other words, dead, unconscious, in control of himself, or reverted back to Terriermon.

In the process, it would be easy to excuse pulling Impmon out of the fight; as his Tamer, he decided to extract his partner from such a dangerous environment.

And without Impmon, Kyuubimon was likely to take a great deal of damage, especially since she'd already fought and taken a beating from Impmon. She would be in no condition to fight Impmon, backed up by Jenrya's deck, for though he'd fought Kyuubimon, he wouldn't have to fight Galgomon any further. And Takato was sure Jenrya had some health restoring cards.

Better yet, if Kyuubimon takes Galgomon down, and appears to be ready to finish him, he could have Impmon sucker punch her, using protecting Terriermon as an excuse, which might even endear him further to Lee.

It was relatively simple.

It would almost certainly work if one prerequisite, Galgomon attacking Ruki, was met.

And it made Takato feel dirty just thinking about it.

And he felt even dirtier when he gave Impmon the go ahead.

He tried to justify it to himself, he really did.

'You saw how fast Kyuubimon could move; Ruki's not in any danger.'

He thought of that. And he knew it was true; in all likelihood, Ruki was in no danger. So it was a pretty good argument; he might have even been able to convince himself of it is he didn't already know the truth.

But he did.

He couldn't justify it because this had absolutely nothing to do with Ruki and whether or not she was in danger. This was a distraction for Kyuubimon; a way of making her fight Galgomon and nothing more. Ruki didn't matter any further then as a way to convincing her partner to do so.

And that was the problem.

He'd already objectified Ruki; she was nothing but a piece on the chessboard. And that made him question himself. He wasn't treating Kyuubimon, Galgomon, or Ruki like actual people. They were pawns right now.

Why? Why was he doing this? Why was he doing this far?

He didn't know.

This was just a grudge match; a fight that broke out between a Digimon that had been crushed and a Digimon that had done the crushing. There was no need, no _point_, in taking things as far as he was taking them; to the point of risking _lives_.

So why was he?

And why did it feel so right?

He knew the answers; he just didn't understand them. Renamon, _Kyuubimon_, had stood against them and crushed them. She was more powerful than they were; if she had time to prepare and was given a reason, she could defeat and even kill the both of them. She was a threat that could not be ignored and she had to be dealt with as quickly as possible. They needed to destroy her and download her data; it would both remove a threat and make them more powerful. Such was the natural way of things.

Only it wasn't, Takato told himself. That wasn't how the world worked; at least, _this_ world worked. Or it didn't have to be.

Did it?

He wanted to say no, but he couldn't for some reason. He couldn't say 'no' wholeheartedly, because part of him, for reasons he couldn't begin to fathom, wanted the answer to be 'yes.'

What was happening to him? Ever since Impmon became his partner, he'd felt different.

No. Not just different.

Better.

He was drawn out of his thoughts when Impmon began to implement his plan.

It began quickly, and Takato only noticed because he was watching. Galgomon was firing a burst of shots at Impmon, none of which had any real hope of making contact. Impmon was…not too fast, per se, but too agile to be hit while Galgomon was off balance. Indeed, he was in a position to easily dodge the bullets.

And dodge he did.

Specifically, to the left.

He was in a position where it didn't really matter whether he went left or right, so it could have easily been a coincidence. But Takato knew that he specifically chose to go left.

Because when Galgomon clumsily tried to shift his guns after his Target, his bullets ended up dangerously close to Jenrya and Ruki. Well, within twenty feet of them, which Takato considered dangerously close where gunfire was concerned.

Kyuubimon apparently shared his opinion.

She immediately shifted her pattern, breaking the routine she and Impmon had set up. She turned a maneuver that would have placed her in a strategic position into a frontal assault to distract Galgomon. She hit him, and she hit him _hard_.

"Watch it." She hissed.

"What? Those bullets didn't even come close to me!" Impmon pretended not to understand what she meant.

"The _Tamers_." She snarled.

She didn't have a chance to say anything further, however, because Galgomon had apparently realized what she'd done and why. And since he was no longer being kept off his guard by the pattern the other Digimon had forced him to fall into, he managed to mount an assault.

Which did absolutely nothing, because Takato took the chance that presented itself and slashed a card he'd been preparing.

"Accelerator, activate!"

Impmon moved from beside Kyuubimon and reappeared in the line of fire, following Takato's will flawlessly.

"Summon Fire!"

The wave of fire had such power that the bullets didn't even melt, they _sublimated_. Takato was impressed, even though he knew most of that was because of the Vaccine Killer.

He dismissed those thought as he mentally 'informed' Impmon of what he should do.

"I'll protect the kids; you take him down." Impmon told Kyuubimon.

Kyuubimon, for her part, didn't say a word. The moment she was sure her Tamer was safe, she turned on Galgomon again.

And Takato could tell that this time was different. Galgomon had threatened her Tamer. _Twice._ Once intentionally. She was through playing around.

She wasn't going to hold anything back. Not anymore.

Surprisingly, she started small; she slammed into Galgomon full force instead of, say, lighting him on fire. Still, the blow was strong enough to lift Galgomon off his feet, slam him into the car behind him, crush said car like a beer can, and then push both Galgomon and the car into the wall.

Takato winced. It seemed ridiculous to worry about such a thing after the who knows how many yen of property damage he'd already caused, but he hoped the owner of the car had insurance.

Actually, he hoped all the other owners of the cars in here had insurance, too.

And the owner of this build should probably hope he insured this place.

Shaking himself from his thoughts again, he noticed the Kyuubimon had no intention of letting up just because her opponent was down. Takato's eyes widened and he quickly backtracked.

Just in time, too, as a Dragon of Blue Flames slammed down upon Galgomon.

The car Galgomon was stuck in literally exploded, and, whether because of the Dragon or the Explosion, so did the cars to the left and right of it. The wall, ceiling, and floor were both severely damaged, and Takato suddenly realized then instead of worrying about the property damaged, he should be worrying about the structural integrity of the building.

Suddenly, moving until he was a lot closer to the exit seemed more than a little strategic, and Takato quickly did so.

And he quickly felt really smart for doing so. He winced as a number of blue fireballs descended upon where he assumed Galgomon was behind all that smoke. He was beginning to wonder if Galgomon was even going to be able to fight back.

His fears were laid to rest as quickly as they formed.

"Gatling Arm!" Galgomon shouted, and Takato was surprised that he could even speak.

Was this a sign that he was regaining his senses?

Based on how he was attacking Kyuubimon, that seemed unlikely.

But then, she _did_ just attacking him.

Takato frowned suddenly as he noticed something different about this attack. It wasn't the same as the bullets he'd been firing previously.

To Takato, the bullets fired _looked_ the same; from what he could see of them, which wasn't much due to their speed. But there were definitely more of them and, hard as it was to judge, they seemed fast as well.

The latter observation was based off the fact that they actually hit Kyuubimon.

Oh, and they seemed to have a lot more force, since they left holes the size of a fist in the wall.

Takato was beginning to worry about a stray bullet killing him. After all, he was the only one without a partner.

But it was only fair, right? He was putting Jenrya and Ruki in danger, not to mention the Digimon. It was only right that he was willing to face a risk or two as well.

Kyuubimon's reaction to the attack was somewhat surprising. She didn't vocalize any of the pain she was no doubt in. In fact, she didn't even slow down when the bullets tore small holes in her body wherever they hit. She just attacked.

With extreme prejudice.

Takato was alarmed to find how quickly Galgomon was being taken down, but not as alarmed as he was to note the brutality that Kyuubimon was now exhibiting. Though Galgomon cried out in pain as Kyuubimon's claws and teeth tore at his hide, though he screeched when her blue flames burnt his flesh, Kyuubimon herself did not hesitate for even a moment; she just attacked, and attacked, and attacked.

But more than anything, he was worried. He hadn't realized exactly _how much_ Kyuubimon was holding back. The original plan had accounted for Galgomon to be approximately equal with Kyuubimon, though probably weaker due to his type disadvantage.

That wasn't the way things were turning out. Galgomon was getting crushed by Kyuubimon now that she was no longer holding back.

Why?

Was Kyuubimon really that much stronger? If so, why? Was it because Kyuubimon wasn't acting irrationally? No, that shouldn't really matter. And Kyuubimon alone shouldn't be so much stronger; Impmon had held his own.

What determines such deference in power? 

Their Tamers, Takato realized, were the most likely explanation.

But Ruki wasn't slashing any cards. Was there more to being a Tamer? Things that Takato didn't know about?

There must be.

And luckily, Takato knew an organization that could tell him all about it.

But first, he had to keep their good will.

Well, at least Jenrya's good will.

Kyuubimon was readying her finishing blow, and another dragon of blue flames was bearing down up the beaten, broken Galgomon. This fight was over; all that was left was the coup de grace.

If Impmon was going to step in and 'save' Galgomon, he needed to do it now, because he probably wouldn't get another chance.

So he did. And his Tamer reacted accordingly, slashing the card he had prepared since he thought up this plan; a card he was both surprised and pleased to find Jenrya had in his deck.

A familiar card.

"Brave Shield, Activate!"

Wargreymon's shield materialized in Impmon's hands, enormous compared to them; to Impmon's entire body, even. It imposed itself in front of Kyuubimon's attack, and withstood its force effortlessly.

Impmon's actions invoked an immediate reaction, naturally.

"What the hell!" Ruki shouted.

Takato had expected that obvious reaction, since it was…well, obvious.

"Ruki-san, if you go any further, Kyuubimon will kill Galgomon."

Ruki narrowed her eyes. She had probably realized the truth of his words, and was debating her next course of action. Takato could practically hear the gears turning in her head; she was probably coming to the same conclusions Takato had.

On one hand, Galgomon was too dangerous to leave on his own, and he'd showed no signs of reverting to Terriermon. He didn't seem to distinguish between friend and foe. He may very well attack his own Tamer.

But on the other hand, he was at least an ally; could she really just kill him?

This was a tricky part of the situation, because it was also where Takato's plan ended. Why? Well, because he had absolutely no idea how Ruki would react.

He'd predicted Kyuubimon based off how protective Digimon seemed of their Tamers, but Ruki? He had no idea what relationship she had with Jenrya and Terriermon. She probably wasn't an enemy, but what was she? A rival, friend, ally, or teammate? Hell, for all he knew, she was Jenrya's secret lover.

She could react in any number of ways that Takato couldn't hope to predict without knowing her, which he didn't. It was her move, and he was going to have to react to it.

Ruki opened her mouth to speak, probably to give Kyuubimon an order of some sort.

Unfortunately for Takato's curiosity, he never got to hear that order, because it was interrupted by a matter of pressing concern.

The roof was collapsing.


	5. Chapter 5: Day is Night

I suppose that before continuing onto the chapter, I should take a moment to reply to some of the reviewers, who I've been neglecting. So…

Flamelord99: About that; Ruki and Takato are going to have an interesting, and very weird, relationship with each other, which may or may not involve any of the following: bitter hatred, rivalry, romance, fear, disgust, and friendship.

Katsugi: Yeah, sorry about that. keeps eating by page breaks. Hopefully the new ones I'm using will work.

Mark of Cain: His Adult form is Devimon, but his Perfect form isn't Myotismon.

Mr. Eclipse: As a teenager whose mind is being influenced by his demonic partner, and who's been suddenly thrust into a strange new world, Takato's relationship with other people will be varied and weird. But he will have friends. Some of them will be pretty horrible, though.

Tamers Unlimited

Chapter Five: Day is Night

Takato pulled himself from the rubble fairly easily, since there was very little rubble near him. One of the perks of being a few feet away from the door is the ability to pull yourself outside when things go South.

Nonetheless, he had a brief coughing fit thanks to the amount of dust that had been kicked up.

The first thing he did was glance up at the rest of the building. He sighed in relief; only the ceiling, the floor above, really, had collapsed, not the entire building. So while on one hand, the building's structural integrity was now in a questionable state, the others hadn't had a building fall on them, which was always a good thing.

He gave the dust a minute to fade, before for taking a deep breath and doing something stupid.

He walked right back in.

While he was pretty sure none of the Digimon would give a damn one way or the other over a collapsed ceiling, Ruki and Jenrya might have been hurt.

Something he wasn't sure what to think of.

However, he wasn't really worried about it that much; he figured Kyuubimon probably did something besides stand around while her Tamers life was in danger.

So he wasn't at all surprised at what he found.

In the spot where Ruki and Jenrya had stood, there was a large pile of rubble; large enough for Takato to tell that Kyuubimon was in there as well, even with seeing tufts of yellow fur. In addition, there was another large pile, if you could call it that; really, it was just a few large pieces of debris that had landed on Galgomon. He was still partially visible underneath it.

Takato looked at him for a long moment, before deciding he wasn't a threat. Between the extended beating he'd taken and the collapse, Takato felt fairly certain the fight was over.

He had mixed feelings about that, but he did his best to put them aside for the moment.

He had bigger things to worry about; Impmon was nowhere in sight.

Luckily, that was a problem that was easily rectified.

Takato pulled out his Digivice and fiddled with it for a few seconds; he still hadn't quite memorized the controls. But in moments, the compass appeared. The arrow twirled around the screen for a second before catching onto…whatever it was that allowed it to locate Impmon, and pointing in his direction.

Takato followed the arrow, carefully stepping around the rubble. Within a minute, the compass indicated that he had found his partner. Takato shifted his eyes to the ground. It was hard to tell with the uneven surface of the ground, but was this spot a bit bigger? He honestly wasn't sure; one of the downsides of being so small was that Impmon didn't leave any large piles.

Only one way to find out, he decided. He put away his Digivice and fell to his knees. There wasn't that much rubble; or at least, there were many _big_ pieces of rubble. Takato was able to move most of it, though he quickly began to wish that he had gloves, since his hands were getting hurt.

But it wasn't long before he was able to see most of Impmon's purple body. He just had to move the large piece covering most of Impmon's upper body. He took a deep breath as he prepared to move the large piece, before suddenly moving to the side. He was confused when he realized what he'd done; he'd had no intention of moving. So why had – oh.

With a snarl, Impmon flung the piece off of himself, before letting himself rest on the floor for a second.

"Ow." He said.

"You okay Impmon?" Takato immediately rushed to his partner's side.

Impmon took a deep breath before getting up.

"Never better."

Takato didn't say anything, choosing instead to shuffle through Lee's deck, looking for a healing card.

Moments later, Takato and the rejuvenated Impmon stood together, not completely sure what to do.

"So…should we call the police or something?"

"And what? Tell them some kids and their Digital friends did it?" Impmon shot back.

Takato frowned.

"That's not what I meant. But we don't know if anyone saw us go in; it'd look pretty suspicious if they knew we were inside but didn't call the police."

Impmon mulled that over for a moment.

"They're probably already on their way." Takato added.

Impmon frowned at that.

"I guess you should call, then. Unless someone in the know rats us out, we don't really need to worry; no one's going to believe you're responsible for this."

"Especially when they look it over and find out no bombs were involved. Though a lot of the damage you caused is gonna look suspicious."

"Don't act like I did it alone."

Takato ignored him, choosing to look around instead.

"We should dig out the others."

"What?"

"If people learn about Digimon, they might find out about the two of us. Which would be bad. And the others could point fingers at us."

"That's unlikely." Impmon pointed out.

"But possible."

"I guess."

Impmon was the one to glance around this time.

"Where should we start?"

"With Jenrya and Ruki; Kyuubimon's with them, and she was the only other Digimon in this room that wasn't trying to kill us a minute ago."

"Yeah, but only cause her Tamer was still deciding."

"Maybe, but Galgomon had already made up his mind; Ruki was still mulling it over."

Impmon let out a long suffering sigh.

"How long do you think we have?" He asked, moving toward Kyuubimon's pile.

"Let's call it five minutes, depending on traffic."

"Do you have any strength boosting cards in that deck?"

"Way ahead of you." Takato said, already holding up a card. "Strength Plug-In W, Activate!"

Takato and Impmon quickly got to work digging out Kyuubimon. Well, mainly Impmon; Takato, being only human, could do only a fraction of the work Impmon was capable of.

But even so, neither of them had to do much work; shortly after they began moving the rubble, Kyuubimon also began to help; doing most of their work for them by merely standing up. The rubble fell off her like rain water as she did.

"If you could get out, why didn't you do it in the first place?" Impmon demanded.

"I didn't want any of the debris to land on Ruki when it fell off of me." Kyuubimon replied.

Takato, for his part, ignored their conversation.

"What's the situation?" Ruki asked; all business. She absently brushed some dust off her clothes, but since she was covered in dust, it had no noticeable effect.

"Let's call it four minutes until the police show up; three if they make really good time. Impmon, go dig out Galgomon. Kyuubimon, please help him. Jenrya, if you know of any way to make him revert to Terriermon, and for some reason haven't used it already, please do so now." Takato replied in the same way. He was somewhat surprised at how easily Ruki was able to put aside the fact that they had been fighting only minutes before. Perhaps he hadn't given her enough credit.

"I don't." Jenrya stated. Kyuubimon was already moving towards Galgomon's location.

"Shit. Can you carry him?" Takato asked the yellow fox, as Jenrya lifted himself from the ground.

"Maybe. Though I feel the need to inform you that a huge nine-tailed fox carrying a large humanoid bunny-dog through the streets of the city of Tokyo is going to draw a great deal of attention." She said as she started digging.

Takato winced at that.

"Could you take the roofs?" Takato asked.

"If I was just carrying Ruki, yes, but I'm not sure I want to risk it while carrying Galgomon."

Takato shook his head.

"Jenrya, you need to figure out what to do with your partner. Like, right now."

"I just told you, I don't know how to revert him to Terriermor!"

"Now would be a really good time to figure it out. Meanwhile, I'm going to go outside and call the police so that we don't look too suspicious. One of you, call Yamaki; maybe he can help."

Suddenly, an idea occurred to him that was so obvious Takato was embarrassed he hadn't thought of it earlier. He quickly shifted through Jenrya's deck, but didn't find what he was looking for.

"I'm sure there are cards allowing you to devolve you're Digimon, but I didn't think that would be necessary, especially not on my second day, so I didn't put any in my deck. Neither did Jenrya. Did you, Ruki?"

"No; Kyuubimon can turn back at will."

"Do you have any at your house?"

She looked at me like she was insulted that he asked that, which he ignored. He got the feeling he'd be ignoring a lot of things in the days to come.

"Of course."

"How fast can Renamon get it?"

"Fast enough, but I'm pretty sure she wouldn't recognize it on sight."

"Then ask her to bring _all_ your cards, and you can find it." He began to walk towards the door. "If the police show up, I'll try to buy some time."

xxxXXXxxx

Takato sat down with a sigh. He wasn't sure if Ruki and Jenrya had gotten Galgomon out; he hadn't been able to check without looking suspicious. Luckily, for the moment, it wasn't an issue. Yamaki had shown up and was talking with the Police.

No, that's not quite right.

Yamaki had shown up, and was _pulling rank_ on the Police.

Who was this guy?

He made a note to himself that he should find out. If this guy could convince police officers that investigating potentially collapsing buildings was a _bad_ idea, then he was obviously very powerful, and thus, at least potentially, very dangerous. Definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Something that shouldn't be _too_ hard if he was allowed to join. Takato decided to be on his best behavior for the time being; he was beginning to really want answers.

He was torn from his thoughts when Yamaki approached.

"What happened?"

"Impmon sensed a Digimon, so we tracked it down. It turned out to be Renamon, and due to our previous encounter things quickly degraded to the point that Renamon evolved. Jenrya and Terriermon showed up shortly after and got involved. Due to the situation, he evolved."

Yamaki didn't so much wince as he became still, but Takato caught it anyway.

"I take it from your reaction that I don't need to tell you he was out of control?"

Yamaki didn't comment so Takato continued.

"Well he was. Due to the dangers that quickly became obvious, Ruki and I set aside our feelings and teamed up to deal with Galgomon and Jenrya lent me his deck. Long story short; the combination of two Adults and a supped up Child blew the roof off."

Yamaki's reaction was hard to judge; it was obvious, whatever it was, but Takato couldn't interpret it.

"Anyway, as soon as Galgomon started shooting and cars started exploding, I'd wisely relocated myself to, oh, the _doorway_. When rocks started falling, I was mainly out of harm's way. After I was pretty sure the rest of the building wasn't going to fall on me, I went back in and tracked my partner with my Digivice. I dug him out, we dug Kyuubimon out, she dug Galgomon out, and we worried about what the hell we were gonna do about Galgomon. I called the cops so they wouldn't be suspicious that I was nearby, and one of the others called you. I went out here to buy time if needed; Jenrya and Ruki worked on Galgomon. No idea if they succeeded, though Renamon was getting Ruki's cards when I came out here."

It was all true. The abbreviated truth, perhaps, but all true.

Yamaki looked at Takato silently for a minute before nodding.

"Stay out here and make sure nobody else goes down."

"Gotcha."

xxxXXXxxx

"Yamaki!" Jenrya said, surprised. He'd been very scared when he'd heard someone coming down.

Yamaki ignored the exclamation, focusing on something he deemed far more important.

"Galgomon's still here." He stated with a frown.

"Nothing's working." Ruki said, still shuffling through her deck. She didn't even look up.

"Then don't bother; I'll tell a van to pick him up." He said, already reaching for his phone.

A quick call later, Yamaki refocused on the Tamers.

"Now explain what's going on."

Ruki raised an eyebrow and looked up.

"You didn't ask Takato?" Jenrya asked, voicing Ruki's question.

"I did, I'm just not sure I trust him."

Jenrya frowned and opened his mouth, but Ruki cut him off before he could say a word.

"I had Renamon attract Impmon's attention, and drew him and his Tamer here. As soon as they noticed me, they apparently decided I was here for a rematch and immediately attacked."

"Was that why you were there?" Jenrya wondered.

"That's not the point." Ruki hesitated before speaking the next part. "They did fairly good…for Rookies."

"That's not what I saw." Lee commented.

Yamaki lifted an eyebrow and turned to the second Tamer. He took that as a sign to continue.

"Takato and Impmon looked to be holding their own when I showed up; Ruki had even made Renamon evolve because before she did Impmon had dominated the fight. Hell, he dominated the fight even afterwards."

"Only because of the huge amount of modify cards he was using right off the bat!" Ruki protested, glaring. They would have worn off momentarily, and Kyuubimon would have crushed him like an insect. And how long were you watching, anyway?"

"Long enough." Jenrya replied.

"Wait. Why are you here?" Yamaki asked.

"Terriermon sensed Renamon, too."

Yamaki nodded and remained facing Jenrya; he'd obviously decided he wanted to hear Jenrya's version instead of Ruki's.

"Takato did indeed make use of a number of modify cards designed specifically to counter Data types, and, more specifically, Child and Adult Data Types. I assume the deck was designed specifically for dealing with Ruki, and while I must agree that once the cards wore off, he would have lost, I believe that was more because of his limited selection of cards than anything else. From what I know of him, he doesn't exactly have a large amount of money to spend on cards. Even so, after he ran out of cards that were useable on Renamon, he still had a number left, which I assume are for situations that didn't come up, probably Virus and Vaccine type Digimon."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because that's what I would have done. Actually, that's what I _did_ do."

Yamaki nodded in acceptance of that and Jenrya continued as if he wasn't interrupted.

"He showed a…startling amount of ruthlessness, not letting up on Renamon for a moment, but I suppose that's a good thing in a Combat Tamer. His original strategy seemed to be focused around not letting Renamon evolve, which was unsuccessful. However, he showed the foresight of preparing for that, and using his cards skillfully enough to fight on even ground with an Adult, if only for a short period of time."

"But…" Yamaki asked. He knew there was a 'but.' There was always a 'but.'

"But his partner seems to be influencing him a lot more than normal." Ruki chimed in.

"What she said. He's showing an incredible desire to fight, and the ruthlessness and relentlessness of a Virus. He's obviously willing to go pretty far to win." Jenrya agreed.

"Which is not necessarily a _bad_ thing." Yamaki pointed out. "How did he react once Terriermon evolved?"

"He seemed willing to set aside his feelings in order to help." Jenrya said.

"Help himself, at least." Ruki added cynically. "He benefited from his actions more than anyone else did."

Jenrya frowned at her, but continued undeterred.

"He was also willing to protect Galgomon when things got serious."

Ruki had no response for that.

"And he helped us when we were buried under all that rubble."

"We were never in danger; Kyuubimon was there."

"What about afterwards?" Yamaki asked.

"He took control of the situation." Jenrya stated. "He helped with Galgomon, told us to call, called the police to avoid suspicion, and went out there to buy time. He also tried to get Galgomon out of here."

"How'd he do under pressure?"

"Very well, sir; he seemed to thrive in it. Probably more of his partners influence."

"Then what do you think, Jenrya? Would he cut it?"

"Yes, sir; I think he'd make a great Combat Tamer."

Yamaki looked at him silently for a minute.

"Very well, Jenrya; you go to the same school as him, right? Go home, I'll take care of everything here.

"And tomorrow?"

"Bring him in."

xxxXXXxxx

After Jenrya left, Ruki turned to Yamaki.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Yamaki."

"What's not a good idea?"

"Making Takato a Tamer."

"You used his name. He must have made quite an impression." Yamaki said, focusing on the part that interested him.

"I'm serious, Yamaki."

"I know. And I agree. He's been a Tamer for less than two days, and we have no idea how he's handling it outside combat situations. He could be really dangerous if the power goes to his head, especially if he manages to evolve his partner; we all know the power of a Digimon, and he and Impmon have proven they can be a devastating combination even though Impmon's just a child. When he realizes the power he has at his disposal, he could do any number of things; use it to make money, to steal, to get back at those who picked on him, hell, to impress girls. Those are all likely ways for a teenage boy to make use of power. And that's only a teenager fantasies. What could happen if he started to think like an adult and realizes that crime does indeed pay, especially when you have that much power behind you. And those are just the obvious stereotypical male ways to use his power. We know nothing about him, much less what he might do. However…"

"We're not exactly weighed down by our options, are we?"

"No. Digimon are realizing much more frequently and we have a limited number of Tamers."

"A fact that's made even worse by the fact that not all of them are mentally built for combat; hell, some of them aren't even _physically _built for combat."

"And of the remainder, not all of them _want _to fight. Takato is risky, and letting him in could easily turn out to hurt us…but it could also help us, and we need help. And if we don't get it, people are going to get hurt."

Ruki was silent for several seconds.

"You're right; he's a gamble, but we're running out of options."

"We've _run_ out of options. The amount of firepower needed to take down Adult Digimon is fairly extreme; too extreme for us to use in one of the largest cities in the world. We _need_ Tamers. I'm not saying we should just trust him, because anyone who's been around the block of human nature once or twice would recognize that as a monumentally stupid idea. I'm just saying that he's got firepower. A lot of it. And he'll only get more as his partner evolves."

"If he evolves." Ruki corrected.

"No…I think those two will evolve." Yamaki said. "I think they're too good not too."

"…I agree. Which is what I'm having problems with. This is his second _day_, his partners still a _Child_, and I'm already considering him a potential _threat_. And we're going to just make him a bigger one. If Impmon becomes an Adult…we could have a major problem on our hands, Yamaki."

"Yeah…I know. Which is why I want you to keep a close eye on him."

"I'm going to be his _teacher_, Yamaki. Did you think I wasn't going to watch him?"

xxxXXXxxx

It was disorienting. Just Yesterday, he and his partner had been fighting a battle straight out of science-fiction.

And today he was going to school like nothing happened?

Takato had spent the entire day feeling like he'd suffered whiplash do to how suddenly the situation had changed. Several times he'd caught himself wondering if everything had been a dream, but he quickly shook such thoughts away. He knew it wasn't.

He'd brought his Digivice and Deck with him to prove it.

Was this just something he was going to have to get used to? Constantly switching between normalcy and abnormality?

He doubted it, if only because he wasn't sure he'd be able to take it.

Such were the thoughts passing through Takato's mind as he walked out of school. That is, until they were interrupted.

"Hey, Takato-kun! Over here!"

Takato turned towards the familiar voice, and as he'd expected, there stood Lee Jenrya.

"Lee-san…" He suspected he was about to switch back to abnormality.

"Jenrya's fine, Takato; or even just Jen."

"Ah…okay…Jen-kun. Is something wrong?"

'Jen-kun,' something it was going to take some time to get used to, got closer in order to whisper something.

"It's about Hypnos, actually. Have you had enough time to think about it?"

Takato had been expecting someone to approach him about it eventually, but he was a bit surprised that it was Jenrya.

But then, he reminded himself, you only know three people; Yamaki, Lee, and Ruki. Yamaki's the big man in charge; why would he do something like this? This was grunt work. And anyone who wasn't blind has probably realized that he and Ruki don't get along. So who else would it be?

That in mind, he gave his reply.

"Yeah. I'm in." Takato said, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"Good." Jen replied. "Do you have some time?"

"Sure."

"Then let's go."

"Let me get Impmon."

xxxXXXxxx

"Where are we?" Takato asked, getting out of the black van. He'd been driven here by someone he assumed worked for Yamaki. He blinked in surprise. "The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building? This is our base?"

"Why not? We're a part of the government, and this is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Government."

"Hypnos is part of the government?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, okay." Takato said, trying to get past that. He took a guess. "And its purpose is to deal with Digimon?"

"It is now." Jen said, but didn't elaborate.

"So, what's the deal with us Tamers?"

"Good question; that's kind of why you're here. To learn about being a Tamer. At its most basic level, being a Tamer simply means being bonded to a Digimon. However, it's a bit more complicated than that, due to the effects of that bond, as well as the current situation."

"Effects?" Takato thought about the weird things he'd noticed himself doing. "It changes you, doesn't it? Your personality…"

"Noticed that, did you? Good job. But…it's a bit more complicated than that. Too complicated to discuss briefly. Luckily, that's what the people upstairs are for. They'll explain better than I can."

Jen and Takato walked into the building. Impmon was hidden in Takato's otherwise empty backpack. One of the guards seemed to recognize Jen, because he nodded at him and let him through.

They went straight through to the Elevator and got inside.

"However," Jen continued once they were away from prying ears. "The current situation is a bit easier to explain. Digimon are Realizing; that's what we call it when a Digimon materializes in this World. In their own World, the Digital World, they exist only as data; they exist, but only in the same way that videogame characters exist. They can't really effect this world; the Real World. However, somehow, Digimon have advanced to the point where they are able to ignore such things and _become_ real. Hence, Realize."

Takato had some thoughts on that issue, about Digimon not being real when they were data and how he wasn't sure he agreed. But he kept them to himself, and silently continued to listen.

"At their most basic level, a Digimon's purpose is to _survive_ and _evolve_. That's why they come to this world; due to the much lower number of Digimon, their chances of survival are much higher and they can basically run free. In general, this results in them hurting a large number of people. Our purpose, the purpose of both the Tamers and Hypnos, in general, is to stop them, by any means necessary."

Takato had a thought.

"Is that why they bond with us humans? To evolve?"

"We think so. Like you noticed, your bond with your partner is affecting you greatly. But it's affecting him, too. He's becoming more…human, I suppose is close enough. He's learnt your language, for example, though learning a language is generally easy for Digimon. But more than that, he's learning about humans; how they think, how they feel, how they _fight_. He's doing it in the hopes that it will make him better able to survive."

"Is it working?"

"That's the thing about evolution; you only really know what works best when you look at it in hindsight. However, all signs point towards _yes_. A Tamer's Digimon is, all things considered, stronger than a Digimon of the same type and level. In some cases…a lot stronger."

"…Because of the cards." Takato didn't quite ask, because it wasn't really a question.

"And the Digivices. But even without them, they're stronger; we're not sure why."

"What's with those things anyway? Why do the cards and Digivices do what they do? Is that another part of Digimon's evolution?"

"Honestly? We have no idea. The Digivices exist independently of the Digimon; we know that much. And the cards are definitely part of this world. So we have no idea why they do what they do."

The elevator reached its destination, and the two Tamers (and the hidden Impmon) walked out.

Noticing that they were almost there, Takato extended one hand and stopped Jenrya. Jen looked at him and raise one eyebrow.

"Before we go in," Takato started. "I have one more question."

"Shot."

"You said we stop Digimon when they realize. How?"

Jen was silent at that. He turned to look forward again, but still didn't say anything. It was only when Takato was about to ask again that he spoke.

"Generally?" He said, turning to look at Takato again. "We delete them."

He closed his eyes for a moment, before correcting himself.

"We _kill_ them."

Takato had no reply for that, and Jenrya didn't want to say anything else.

So they walked the rest of the way to their destination in silence.

xxxXXXxxx

"Hello Takato." Yamaki said as he entered.

"Um…hey…Yamaki-san?" He was honestly unsure of how to address the older man.

Luckily, either he got it right or, more likely, Yamaki simply didn't care.

"I see you accepted our offer." That appeared to be something Yamaki _did_ care about, however.

"…Yeah?" He was also unsure of how to answer that, because it seemed that Yamaki wanted one if the long, uncomfortable silence was any indication.

Well, Takato was uncomfortable. Once again, Yamaki didn't seem to care.

Deciding that not making a fool of himself on his first day was the better part of valor, Takato chose to let Impmon out instead. He gently set down the backpack and unzipped it carefully. Impmon stepped out of it as though he was just getting out of a chair; Takato had been careful not to jostle his partner.

Impmon did complain a bit though, but Takato felt that was more because he felt he was expected to, then because of any other reason.

"You need a bigger bag, kid. It was cramped as hell in there." He grumbled. Takato just smiled casually at his partner.

In Impmon's defense, his partner had indeed expected him to complain.

Takato watched Impmon for a moment, entirely because it gave him a way to avoid looking at anyone else while he put his thoughts together.

"Yamaki-san. Jenrya told me that the Bond between Impmon and I was affecting us both."

"Indeed, that is correct."

"Why? And more importantly, how?"

"Can I assume Jenrya told you about the way Digimon are designed to survive and evolve?"

Takato nodded once.

"That's what the Tamer Bond does. It increases the likelihood of survival and evolution. It increases the likelihood of survival by basically downloading information from the Tamer to the Digimon. Language, customs, mannerisms, information about locations, knowledge of the area, etc. Basically? Everything someone would need to survive in today's world. He probably doesn't care about it much, but when you leave, quiz your partner on some of the things you've learnt in school. I guarantee you this; if you know the answer, he knows the answer."

"And it also increases the likelihood of evolution, I assume?"

"Yes. You've seen it happen three times now, haven't you?"

He didn't clarify, but he didn't really need too.

Takato knew exactly what he meant.

"Kyuubimon and Galgomon."

"Exactly. That is the true power of a Tamer. In the Digital World, Digimon can evolve in a number of ways; generally involving the accumulation and absorption of large amounts of Data. But a Digimon with a Tamer is different."

"They don't need to gather Data?"

"…We don't know. We don't know how a Tamer is capable of evolving their partner. We're unsure if they somehow bypass the need for data, or if a Tamer allows the Digimon to gather large amounts of data in a different way."

"Well, okay. That's interesting, and it explains why my friend here partnered up with me. But Impmon's not the only one being affected. Yamaki…what's happening to me?"

Yamaki was silent for a moment.

"You're synchronizing."

"I'm what?" Takato asked. He understood the word, but he wasn't sure what it meant in this context.

"Synchronizing. A Digimon and their Tamer work best together when they are as one. As such, the closer in personality they are to each other, the stronger they are. And I don't just mean the obvious effect of facilitating teamwork."

"You're talking about evolution, aren't you?"

"Yes. The degree of synchronization directly affects the Digimon's ability to evolve. But even that's not all. By being synchronized with his Tamer, a Digimon's power dramatically increases. We don't know where exactly that power comes from; we presume it's the same place the power that allows them to evolve comes from."

Takato had a sudden realization.

"That's why…" Takato hesitated, wondering if he should really say this. "Ruki and I were stronger then Jenrya wasn't it? He's not as synchronized, is he?"

Takato looked toward Jen as he said that, hoping he didn't come off as too insulting.

Yamaki was still for a moment, as though wondering whether to confirm or deny that comment. But then that moment passed, and he nodded once. Jenrya's face was blank.

"Terriermon is one of the most powerful Child level Digimon in Hypnos. However, Jenrya has a…history with Terriermon's evolved form. So while their synchronization is high while Terriermon stays the way he is, when he evolves, that ratio takes a sudden and sharp decline."

"Ratio? You can measure this?"

"Of course; figuring out how to measure things such as this was one of the first things Hypnos focused on."

"Then I take it one of the reasons I'm here is to get…measured?"

"Indeed."

"And what do my numbers change?"

"Your rank, your power, and your mental stability are all affected by it, though not necessarily in the same ways."

Takato frowned. So these numbers were important. He was willing to bet these numbers would take the same place as money and social status did amongst normal teenagers.

Which meant that if his numbers were low, and people knew, his life would probably suck. On the other hand, if they were high, and people knew, he'd probably be better off for it.

"Who will know what my numbers are?" Takato asked.

"Everyone in Hypnos."

Takato didn't think that was a good idea; he figured the kids with low numbers were probably getting a lot a grief over it.

"And I'll know what their numbers are, too?" He asked, supposing that, on the other hand, it did have some upsides.

"Eventually."

"Then let's go measure me."

xxxXXXxxx

"That's it?" Takato said, honestly let down.

"That's it. What were you expecting?" Jenrya asked with a smile. Takato figured he'd heard this before.

"I don't know. But when we started talking about futuristic, highly advanced scanners and stuff, I kind of expected something a little less…anti-climactic."

Which was what it had been, in his opinion. Basically he'd lain down on a table and had basically been given a CAT scan. Which, he guessed, was practical; it was just so…boring. After which, they'd said he'd have to wait to get his results, and had ushered him away to do some paperwork. He'd carefully read and signed some forms, had been given a card, and had been promptly deemed a new Tamer.

And then they'd kicked him out and told him to come back tomorrow, after school.

Takato felt somewhat ripped off.

"We get that a lot. Yamaki's really big on keeping things as practical as physically possible, which is good, I suppose."

"But also kind of boring?"

Jenrya laughed.

"Just a bit, for time to time."

"I guess it's mostly my fault. I just thought, you know, becoming a member of a secret government organization dedicated to combating threats from another dimension would be a bit less…"

"Mundane?"

"Yes, exactly."

"I understand the feeling. It'll be like that for awhile, actually, until you're deemed ready to combat Wild Ones. Well, except for some of the parts were you learn how to be a better Tamer. Those are pretty cool."

"So I won't be fighting until I'm approved?"

"Yeah."

"How long will that take?"

Jenrya's phone rang.

"One sec." He took it out and answered it. "Jenrya here. Hm? Yeah, he's here."

Takato lifted an eyebrow and pointed to himself. Jenrya nodded once but lifted a figure in order to keep Takato from asking any questions.

"Uh-huh, yeah. Why? What? _What_? Three? Is Ruki on it, too? Of course she is. Which one is she taking?" Jenrya looked at some of the signs around him. "I'm about…two minutes from the half way point. Have a van waiting for me there…two vans? Why- oh. Already? But-"

Jenrya looked at Takato again, this time more intensely. Takato lifted his other eyebrow in response.

"…No. I don't think that'll be a problem. Just have the vans ready when we get there; we've don't have time to waste."

Jen hung up. Takato gave him a second to be polite; just one. Then he asked his question.

"Who was that? Hypnos?"

"Yeah."

"It sounded like there was a problem."

"There is. Three, to be precise. Three Wild Ones have Realized in three separate locations. One's Ruki's problem. One's mine. And…one's yours."


End file.
